Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms celebrated 2024 as a year of growth that boasted a significant amount of public and private investment during his State of the City address Tuesday, Jan. 28, at Bally’s Quad Cities.
Tuesday, Jan. 28, State of the City Speech. CREDIT KENDA BURROWS
“I’m excited to tell everyone about some of the progress the city has made in 2024 and what we can look forward to in 2025,” Mr. Thoms said in a “Reinvesting in Rock Island” speech that also featured a laundry list of accomplishments and videos showing the progress the city has made in a pivotal downtown project.
Those investments are designed to help Rock Island fulfill its vision, which Mr. Thoms said, ”has always been to help build a healthy, happy, strong” and growing community.
Going forward, he added, Rock Island will need “to stay flexible and plan for the future.”
An example of that in 2024 was the city using a little more than $1 million in its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to “develop several program strategies to help businesses to expand and grow employment” as well as leverage $16 million in private investment.
Through that strategy of turning small amounts of investment into large amounts, Mr. Thoms said, “We have more private dollars being invested in current projects and projects that we know are coming and the year is just starting so I’m sure there is more to be added to this list.”
One of them could be a long-sought-after cannabis dispensary on city-owned land next door to Bally’s Quad Cities Casino & Hotel following the Rock Island City Council’s preliminary approval a day earlier of a plan that would bring the Nature’s Treatment Cannabis project to the site.
Dispensary plan advances
“It’s a great add to the City of Rock Island revenue-wise,” Mr. Thoms told the large crowd. In addition, he said it will be “a beautiful building they’re going to build along with a truck stop to bring more visitors.”
The location of the proposed dispensary is on part of a large parcel of land that had been donated to the city by Riverstone. Mr. Thoms said he is not only looking forward to the new dispensary, “but it’s new revenue, it brings people from out of town, it stops people on the highway, it’s gas sales and diesel sales.”
He also estimated that the $12 million project will be “another big advantage to this side of town.”
Not surprisingly, Mr. Thoms also spent a big part of his speech looking back. That included the 30 investment projects the city supported through Rock Island’s Property Enhancement Program (PEP) and Growing Rock Island Together (GRIT) grants that leveraged $16 million in new investment last year.
Looking forward, Mr. Thoms said the Rock Island economic development team also has begun working on site assembly strategies and building better relationships with local brokers. It’s also working on the revision of the Quad City Enterprise Zone and the fledgling River Edge Redevelopment Zone Program.
The cities of Rock Island, East Moline and Moline joined Aurora, East St. Louis Elgin, Peoria and Rockford thanks to the work of Illinois Quad Cities lawmakers. The zone is designed to revive and redevelop environmentally challenged properties adjacent to rivers in Illinois.
Those efforts will build on the other long list of community development investments in Rock Island in 2024. Among them is the completion of 50 rehabilitation projects using federal and state housing grant funding.
City removing blight
The city also concentrated on removing blighted buildings and cleaning up blighted homes and properties. “This helps create a safer neighborhood, increases the value of the neighborhood around us and the curb appeal doesn’t hurt either,” Mr. Thoms said of the cleanups.
Last year, Rock Island also created its first-ever strategic housing plan to promote new housing development in Rock Island. “Part of that plan is working to expand the whole city, not just affordable housing” but market-rate as well, the mayor said.
Also in 2024, the Rock Island Preservation Commission designated six new Broadway Historic District properties. In addition, the United States Housing Corporation Historic District became the third district in the city to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Those 200 or so homes built between 1918 and 1919 – along with hundreds of others in the Quad Cities – marked the first time the U.S. government ever built non-military, permanent housing for civilians. The Rock Island District project was the third largest completed project in the nation and the only one in Illinois and Iowa.
Mr. Thoms also celebrated completion last year of the overdue historic renovation of Rock Island City Hall, urging residents to drop by and take a look. And he applauded the Rock Island Downtown Alliance, its Quad Cities Chamber partner, and Alliance Executive Director Jack Cullen for a successful and busy sophomore year as it continues its mission to make Rock Island’s downtown clean, safe and beautiful.
The RI Public Works department, too, won high marks from the mayor for a hectic year that included road reconstruction projects, removal of tennis courts at Longview Park, rejuvenating asphalt work, installation speed bumps and supporting the $8.7 million downtown renewal work.
Sunset Park upgrades
“Another renewal project launched in 2024 began in September, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the entrance to Sunset Marina’s Lake Potter and other areas as part of its ongoing challenge to revitalize that once busy city-owned recreational amenity. More work is planned there this year.
Mr. Thoms also shared videos of the ongoing reconstruction and streetscaping of four critical blocks in downtown Rock Island. Once completed the area will feature decorative lighting, landscaping, two large-scale murals in Arts Alley, and 10 new outdoor patio areas that will allow cafe seating. A parking lot also is being converted to greenspace. Then there is the mini-roundabout, which Mr. Thoms called “ more of a landmark than it is anything else but it will be fun to be able to say that we have one.”
In addition, he said, still in the works is the construction of the welcome downtown Rock Island Gateway sign planned for across the street from Schwiebert Park. “The arch will also mark Rock Island’s founding date of 1841,” he said. And that’s just the beginning for downtown, Mr. Thoms said. “The hopes are to continue this block after block after block and make sure the further we go away from the downtown core that it continues to look nice.”
More in 2025
In addition to the downtown, Mr. Thoms also singled out the upcoming renovation of the 95-year-old Saukie Golf Course clubhouse and a number of other projects in the works nearing completion.
“The year is just beginning so we look forward to a great and prosperous 2025.”
Among the things to look for are:
- Redesign and reconstruction of Rock Island’s 11th Street from 31st Avenue to Blackhawk Road. The city was awarded a $42.7 million federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant for the project. It calls for implementing a “road diet” that will take the road from four lanes to three on a critical north-south artery. Mr. Thoms has called it “the main street of Rock Island’s west side.”
- A new $40 million federal courthouse for the Central District of Illinois is nearing completion at 320 18th St.
- Additional $1.5 million available from the street improvement fee for road repairs.
- Rock Island’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Center will celebrate its 50th Anniversary on March 21.
- The 400 docks at Sunset Marina will be replaced, electrical upgrades will be made and dredging will continue.
