Plan Reimagines Downtown Corridor

Downtown Peoria Heights truly is a textbook urban environment. It’s mixture of uses, sidewalk cafés, tree lined streets, direct access to the Rock Island Greenway, and adjacent neighborhoods filled with a diverse variety of home typologies make it a truly livable community.

That said, two distinct issues have kept the Heights from realizing it’s true potential – a pedestrian unfriendly Prospect Road that lacks identity, and a nearly 10-acre empty property in the heart of downtown that until the early 1980’s was the home of a significant Pabst Brewery.

Working in conjunction with both the Village of Peoria Heights, and local developer KDB Group, LLC, Farnsworth Group has been working on plans to reimagine and transform both the Prospect Road corridor and the Pabst property into pedestrian friendly environments that accommodate a diverse mix of uses.

The redesign of Prospect Road incorporates a 4 to 3 road diet – where once there were four lanes, there now will be only three lanes dedicated to vehicular traffic. The extra lane will be transferred to the sidewalks, widening them by approximately five feet on each side of the road to better accommodate al fresco dining, public gathering spaces, and landscape interventions. Curb extensions shorten the distance of crosswalks and provide opportunities for small public seating areas.

The vision for the former Pabst Brewery property is to provide new retail, commercial, restaurant, office, and residential space while also providing a unique park in the heart of downtown. The park literally will be ‘draped’ over portions of the proposed buildings and parking structures and become the central gathering space in the community for concerts and other outdoor events.

An iconic feature of the development will be the band stage – a rambling wooden structure that also serves double duty as a play structure when concerts are not occurring. Bisecting the stage is a recirculating and naturalized children's play stream that pays homage to the nearby Illinois River.