Business is booming in Peoria with tremendous innovation and commercialization efforts underway.  Hospitals are expanding, museums are being built, the downtown is continuing its decade-long revitalization and a new business incubator. All this means that there are tremendous opportunities for your business to grow and thrive.

NEW MARKET TAX CREDIT

Some Good News from Vice President Jerome Sullivan of the Great Lakes Capital Fund. Great Lakes Capital Fund is a not for profit organization that applied for New Market Tax Credits to assist the Build the Block and Hotel projects in Peoria

They received $26,000,000 in New Market Tax Credits. Mr Sullivan will advise the city on the next steps.

http://www.capfund.net/

The general guidelines are driven by the requirements of the U. S. Treasury department. Great Lakes Capital will use the New Markets Tax Credit allocation to provide a below market interest rate (and interest only) loan for 7 years. Final pricing will be determined based upon future interest rates but rates currently would be fixed at 3% to 4% interest rate.

Additionally, Great Lakes would allow for higher Loan to Value levels.

Downtown Peoria fits most of the categories below:

1) Projects are located in Low Income Communities. These are generally Census Tracts that are eligible for Community Development Block Grants funds.

2) serve low-income residents… i.e. if a project isn’t located in a LI Census Tract, but will provide jobs, goods & services to Low Income Residents, that could qualify as well

3) create jobs (esp. jobs for low income residents). A manufacturing operation that relocates to a LI Census Tract (or expands its facility that’s already in a LI area, would be a prime investment). Hotels provide jobs, neighborhood shopping centers provide jobs, goods & services, … etc.

4) revitalize low income communities (i.e. a mixed use project in a neighborhood or small town commercial district .. commercial 1st floor & apartments above).

5) Green developments (LEED certified and/or Alternative Energy projects)

6) Rural developments

7) At least $5 million in Total Dev. Costs

http://www.peoriariverfrontmuseum.com/news.asp?id=2
http://www.cdfifund.gov/what_we_do/programs_id.asp?programID=5

TRACY CROSS RESIDENTIAL MARKET ANALYSIS

Tracy Cross & Associates, Inc. is a professional consulting group serving the residential real estate industry in the areas of market analysis, strategy development, and product planning. From population demographics, through economic variables, area comparables and locational factors, to growth and absorption projections, the firm's primary goal is to identify residential market opportunities where they exist, and to define what the market is and what it is not, thereby guiding its client base each step of the way along a rational, workable path to success.

Tracy Cross & Associates was founded in 1980 and represents virtually all major Chicagoland developers, builders and their lender partners as well as many pubic agencies and governmental bodies. On a national scale, the firm's expertise has led the company into the planning framework of larger-scale master-planned communities, numerous suburban developments, local redevelopment areas, and infill initiatives in inner cities and in mature, built-up suburban areas. Geographic areas of specialized focus include virtually all metropolitan regions in the Midwest, along with various markets in the South Atlantic, South Central, and Mountain regions of the country.

For Peoria, our firm conducted a detailed economic, demographic and residential analysis in order to provide insight into what, if any, housing potentials exist in downtown Peoria (and the Warehouse District in particular) during the next ten years. Levels of opportunity have been identified with these potentials to be presented on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 4:00 pm at the City Council Chambers, 419 Fulton, Peoria, IL.
To view the presentation click here.