20
Dec
2005
Karl "Joe" Nissen certainly sounds frustrated. "It's really an uphill battle," he said of making improvements in East Moline's downtown area, with "20 percent of the people doing 80 percent of the work. ... It's like trying to push a rope up a hill."
He opposed the city's new "special service area," a tax levied on downtown property owners that is being used for improvements in that area. Yet he was also selected for the committee that decides how that money is spent. "I'm going to make sure they're not squandering it," he said of the roughly $60,000 that will be generated each year. "I wasn't going to let them waste the money."
Nissen owns the Carquest building at 936 16th Avenue. His property has the third-highest tax in the special service area. Given his opposition to the new tax, one might have expected that the city would have excluded him from the process of deciding how the money is spent. Certainly, that's what one might see in Davenport, where dissent is feared and frowned upon by leaders at the city and DavenportOne.
But the fact that Nissen and another opponent of the tax are on the seven-member special-service-area committee speaks to a serious interest in changing the city's downtown.
Tony Banaszek chairs the committee and is involved with the ownership of two buildings. He said making the committee diverse was an important element, and even though it has two special-service-area opponents, "that committee is probably the most positive committee I've ever sat on," Banaszek said.
"Both [committee members who opposed the tax] put aside previous feelings" when they came on-board, said Rick Harris, who represents Metrobank on the committee.
The change in East Moline isn't merely touchy-feely. In previous years, Harris said, the city's facade-improvement program had roughly three or four projects annually. "It wasn't a very active program," he said. Part of the problem was that the program only paid for a quarter of the cost of improvements; the city, at the request of property owners, has since raised that proportion to 50 percent. "Plus people didn't know about it," Harris said.
That's changed. In 2005, 15 facade improvements have been funded through the city's program and the special service area's. Although the programs are separate, they're coordinated, with property owners directed to whichever is most appropriate. The city's program, for instance, is meant for larger projects - a property can only participate in the program once - while the special service area's is for smaller improvements.
What's happening in East Moline is that the city is de-emphasizing its big-ticket, major project - the Quarter - in favor of more modest approaches that will provide smaller but quicker benefits. There's been a slow realization that besides possibly not helping the traditional downtown blossom, the Quarter might not even reach its own potential.
So downtown property owners are actively engaged, and they're deciding what needs to be done downtown. Property owners, Banaszek said, recognized they had to take a leadership role. "You have to have the private property owners involved, or things get pretty stagnant," he said. "Sometimes you have to realize the city has limited funds."
The property owners don't have much money, at this point, but they have a measure of control.
"It's going to take five or six or 10 [years]," Nissen said. "It's not going to be quick."
Small Projects
The special service area is a tax based on property value. Owners of property between Sixth and 13th streets and 15th and 16th avenues pay $1.35 for each $100 of equalized assessed valuation. That tax at this point generates roughly $60,000 a year, which a committee of seven property owners decides how to spend. The tax was first collected this past summer.
Compare that $60,000 to the overall investment in Davenport's River Renaissance - well over $100 million - and you'll see that this is small potatoes. "It's a start," Banaszek said. "It certainly gives us a base and an income to work with." He said the committee is talking with grant writers, with the hope of perhaps doubling the committee's annual income.
Harris said that of the $60,000, $15,000 was allocated for facade improvements, $15,000 for "quick fix" projects, $15,000 for capital improvements, and $5,000 each for grant-writing, streetscaping, and design.
But the facade program has taken off, and is eating up money originally set aside for other things. "It's a movable budget," Harris said. So far, roughly $22,000 has been allocated for facade-improvement projects.
The "quick fix" program is designed to deal with issues such as cleanup, exterior painting, and fencing. "It'll make a lot of difference," Nissen said. "We can do a lot of small projects," Banaszek said.
He said that properties have been identified, but because of the facade program, no quick-fix projects have been undertaken this year.
Banaszek added that a long-range plan for downtown East Moline is in-progress, although there are no drafts at this point and no time frame for completion.
Another new development in downtown East Moline in the past year is a new tax increment finance (TIF) district, which the city spent $25,000 establishing. Although that's a major initiative, it might not provide might short-term assistance to the redevelopment of the downtown.
As Rich Keehner, the city's assistant city administrator, noted, "TIFs work great when you have an empty lot," because new construction raises the value of the property significantly. But rehabs don't have the same effect on property values, so the TIF's impact will likely be felt gradually over its 23-year life. If property values overall rise, the incremental property taxes will be available for downtown infrastructure.
Tim Knanishu, executive vice president of Revitalize & Develop East Moline (REDEEM), said he's seen a change in the way the city approaches downtown development. "They understand what limitations exist," he said. "They know what they need to do and they're pushing forward on it."
As for the Quarter, Banaszek conceded that business owners were tired of waiting for promised benefits for downtown from the project: "Maybe we should do something down there rather than wait."
A Special Spark
What's evident at this point is that The Quarter will not be the savior of East Moline's downtown.
The project, which broke ground in 2001, was initially supposed to have a variety of components: residential, office, retail, a restaurant, a regional sports complex, a harbor, a visitors center, and a Mississippi River interpretive center.
To date, four condos have been built - two are presently for sale, while two are occupied - along with the visitors center. The City of East Moline is entertaining proposals for additional residential development - probably mid-rise condos. "We know the mid-rise condos will sell," Keehner said. He added that the city hopes to have construction on new residential components starting in the spring. "They have the whole winter to button things up," he said.
But the regional sports complex and the interpretive center are back-burner projects at this point - at least a couple years away - and the office space has been scrapped.
"We're committed to the plan," Keehner said. "We're making progress. Any time you deal with state agencies, it's slow."
Keehner was referring to the fact that the Quarter is located on a brownfield, and the state must sign off on any proposal before construction can begin. But that doesn't account for a project that was already moving slowly when the Reader last wrote about it three years ago. At that time, the visitors center was scheduled for construction in 2003; it opened in 2005.
"The progress has been disappointing," Knanishu said. The Quarter is a joint project between the city and REDEEM. While Keehner focuses on progress in the project, Knanishu is less sunny. "We've been at it for five years, and we have the beginnings of a residential piece," Knanishu said. "It takes a special spark to make it go." At this point, he said, full development of the Quarter could take between three and six additional years.
One problem, he said, is that people in the Quad Cities are not familiar with the location, making it a difficult sell. The property has a lot of benefits for residential areas - unobstructed views of and proximity to the river, as well as little traffic - but nobody knows about that. "We probably need to do a better job getting out in front of the community," Knanishu said.
He said the planned mid-rise condos might comprise three 12-unit buildings, and added that the sports-complex component could be scaled down to make room for additional residential development.
The original plan from 2000 included four distinct "districts," yet the city and REDEEM have gradually altered that foundation. "We've moved away from the plan," Knanishu said.
He said that although the project has changed significantly - it certainly doesn't have the elegant four-district structure of the original with a wide variety of uses - it's still sound. Sticking with the original concept would have been unwise, he added; the snail-like development of the project was evidence. "It's already proven that it needed to be changed," Knanishu said.
The increasing emphasis on residential, he said, has been validated by the fact that four different developers have expressed interest in The Quarter in the past year and a half.
Certainly, there's an incentive for the city to push the project forward. "The TIF is ticking," Keehner said. The district was established in the late 1990s and lasts for 23 years. The longer the project drags on, the less opportunity there is for developers and the city to capitalize on the increased property values.
The irony is that when the Quarter was established, it was seen as the spark that could ignite new development in East Moline's traditional downtown. Now the roles might be reversed. The speed of owner- and city-led improvements downtown could help push the Quarter forward.
Still, a sea change for East Moline is going to take time, and Keehner pleaded for patience. "We're serious about downtown development," he said. "Our downtown didn't die overnight. It's not going to be revived overnight."
Yet even a converted skeptic promises that the steps undertaken by the government and property owners in East Moline will bear fruit in the next few years. "People will notice that East Moline has changed," Nissen said.
Taking a Chance on East Moline
Sam McFarland doesn't do things the typical way. A visual artist by training, she gave up a job in graphic design to open a different sort of tattoo shop in East Moline.
Painted Monkey Tattoo, at 910 15th Avenue, has an upscale, feminine look, with McFarland's paintings hanging on the walls and a brightly colored interior. It's a far cry from the biker and horror-movie motifs of most tattoo parlors. "The [typical tattoo] places always seem creepy," she said.
McFarland grew up in the Quad Cities and got a fine-arts degree in 1996 from Illinois State University. She did graphic design in Chicago and Los Angeles. She returned to the Quad Cities seven years ago, still working in graphic design. "I enjoy it," she said of her field, "but I really missed hands-on fine arts."
Becoming a tattoo artists certainly qualifies as "hands on."
Beyond the fine-arts bent of her shop, McFarland's parlor offers something else unusual: She uses all disposable tubes and needles. "I like disposable," she said. "I like the idea." Although that equipment costs a few dollars more per tattoo, she said the safety and piece-of-mind are appealing.
McFarland opened Painted Monkey in September and admits that business has been slow. Not having money for marketing is one component of that, as is the fact that tattoo parlors are busier in the warmer months. But it doesn't help that East Moline simply doesn't have much foot traffic - or much traffic, period. McFarland said there are roughly 10 empty storefronts within a few blocks east and west of her parlor.
She said that although there have been improvements in downtown East Moline, the city is "not doing anything to market downtown," or to draw traffic to it.
McFarland said that to keep her skills sharp as her business establishes itself, she tattoos unconventional flesh: "I worked on fruit for a long time," she said. She also had a yarn shop before she started tattooing, and she still spins yarn.
McFarland thinks that East Moline should market itself to artists, noting that "rent is really acceptable." She added: "Artists tend to go where it's cheap to go."
That jibes to a certain extent with what the City of East Moline recognizes about its downtown. "Our downtown is different," said Rich Keehner, the city's assistant city administrator, with an emphasis on specialty business.
For more information on Painted Monkey Tattoo, call (309)236-0828 or visit (http://www.samsartlab.com).
He opposed the city's new "special service area," a tax levied on downtown property owners that is being used for improvements in that area. Yet he was also selected for the committee that decides how that money is spent. "I'm going to make sure they're not squandering it," he said of the roughly $60,000 that will be generated each year. "I wasn't going to let them waste the money."
Nissen owns the Carquest building at 936 16th Avenue. His property has the third-highest tax in the special service area. Given his opposition to the new tax, one might have expected that the city would have excluded him from the process of deciding how the money is spent. Certainly, that's what one might see in Davenport, where dissent is feared and frowned upon by leaders at the city and DavenportOne.
But the fact that Nissen and another opponent of the tax are on the seven-member special-service-area committee speaks to a serious interest in changing the city's downtown.
Tony Banaszek chairs the committee and is involved with the ownership of two buildings. He said making the committee diverse was an important element, and even though it has two special-service-area opponents, "that committee is probably the most positive committee I've ever sat on," Banaszek said.
"Both [committee members who opposed the tax] put aside previous feelings" when they came on-board, said Rick Harris, who represents Metrobank on the committee.
The change in East Moline isn't merely touchy-feely. In previous years, Harris said, the city's facade-improvement program had roughly three or four projects annually. "It wasn't a very active program," he said. Part of the problem was that the program only paid for a quarter of the cost of improvements; the city, at the request of property owners, has since raised that proportion to 50 percent. "Plus people didn't know about it," Harris said.
That's changed. In 2005, 15 facade improvements have been funded through the city's program and the special service area's. Although the programs are separate, they're coordinated, with property owners directed to whichever is most appropriate. The city's program, for instance, is meant for larger projects - a property can only participate in the program once - while the special service area's is for smaller improvements.
What's happening in East Moline is that the city is de-emphasizing its big-ticket, major project - the Quarter - in favor of more modest approaches that will provide smaller but quicker benefits. There's been a slow realization that besides possibly not helping the traditional downtown blossom, the Quarter might not even reach its own potential.
So downtown property owners are actively engaged, and they're deciding what needs to be done downtown. Property owners, Banaszek said, recognized they had to take a leadership role. "You have to have the private property owners involved, or things get pretty stagnant," he said. "Sometimes you have to realize the city has limited funds."
The property owners don't have much money, at this point, but they have a measure of control.
"It's going to take five or six or 10 [years]," Nissen said. "It's not going to be quick."
Small Projects
The special service area is a tax based on property value. Owners of property between Sixth and 13th streets and 15th and 16th avenues pay $1.35 for each $100 of equalized assessed valuation. That tax at this point generates roughly $60,000 a year, which a committee of seven property owners decides how to spend. The tax was first collected this past summer.
Compare that $60,000 to the overall investment in Davenport's River Renaissance - well over $100 million - and you'll see that this is small potatoes. "It's a start," Banaszek said. "It certainly gives us a base and an income to work with." He said the committee is talking with grant writers, with the hope of perhaps doubling the committee's annual income.
Harris said that of the $60,000, $15,000 was allocated for facade improvements, $15,000 for "quick fix" projects, $15,000 for capital improvements, and $5,000 each for grant-writing, streetscaping, and design.
But the facade program has taken off, and is eating up money originally set aside for other things. "It's a movable budget," Harris said. So far, roughly $22,000 has been allocated for facade-improvement projects.
The "quick fix" program is designed to deal with issues such as cleanup, exterior painting, and fencing. "It'll make a lot of difference," Nissen said. "We can do a lot of small projects," Banaszek said.
He said that properties have been identified, but because of the facade program, no quick-fix projects have been undertaken this year.
Banaszek added that a long-range plan for downtown East Moline is in-progress, although there are no drafts at this point and no time frame for completion.
Another new development in downtown East Moline in the past year is a new tax increment finance (TIF) district, which the city spent $25,000 establishing. Although that's a major initiative, it might not provide might short-term assistance to the redevelopment of the downtown.
As Rich Keehner, the city's assistant city administrator, noted, "TIFs work great when you have an empty lot," because new construction raises the value of the property significantly. But rehabs don't have the same effect on property values, so the TIF's impact will likely be felt gradually over its 23-year life. If property values overall rise, the incremental property taxes will be available for downtown infrastructure.
Tim Knanishu, executive vice president of Revitalize & Develop East Moline (REDEEM), said he's seen a change in the way the city approaches downtown development. "They understand what limitations exist," he said. "They know what they need to do and they're pushing forward on it."
As for the Quarter, Banaszek conceded that business owners were tired of waiting for promised benefits for downtown from the project: "Maybe we should do something down there rather than wait."
A Special Spark
What's evident at this point is that The Quarter will not be the savior of East Moline's downtown.
The project, which broke ground in 2001, was initially supposed to have a variety of components: residential, office, retail, a restaurant, a regional sports complex, a harbor, a visitors center, and a Mississippi River interpretive center.
To date, four condos have been built - two are presently for sale, while two are occupied - along with the visitors center. The City of East Moline is entertaining proposals for additional residential development - probably mid-rise condos. "We know the mid-rise condos will sell," Keehner said. He added that the city hopes to have construction on new residential components starting in the spring. "They have the whole winter to button things up," he said.
But the regional sports complex and the interpretive center are back-burner projects at this point - at least a couple years away - and the office space has been scrapped.
"We're committed to the plan," Keehner said. "We're making progress. Any time you deal with state agencies, it's slow."
Keehner was referring to the fact that the Quarter is located on a brownfield, and the state must sign off on any proposal before construction can begin. But that doesn't account for a project that was already moving slowly when the Reader last wrote about it three years ago. At that time, the visitors center was scheduled for construction in 2003; it opened in 2005.
"The progress has been disappointing," Knanishu said. The Quarter is a joint project between the city and REDEEM. While Keehner focuses on progress in the project, Knanishu is less sunny. "We've been at it for five years, and we have the beginnings of a residential piece," Knanishu said. "It takes a special spark to make it go." At this point, he said, full development of the Quarter could take between three and six additional years.
One problem, he said, is that people in the Quad Cities are not familiar with the location, making it a difficult sell. The property has a lot of benefits for residential areas - unobstructed views of and proximity to the river, as well as little traffic - but nobody knows about that. "We probably need to do a better job getting out in front of the community," Knanishu said.
He said the planned mid-rise condos might comprise three 12-unit buildings, and added that the sports-complex component could be scaled down to make room for additional residential development.
The original plan from 2000 included four distinct "districts," yet the city and REDEEM have gradually altered that foundation. "We've moved away from the plan," Knanishu said.
He said that although the project has changed significantly - it certainly doesn't have the elegant four-district structure of the original with a wide variety of uses - it's still sound. Sticking with the original concept would have been unwise, he added; the snail-like development of the project was evidence. "It's already proven that it needed to be changed," Knanishu said.
The increasing emphasis on residential, he said, has been validated by the fact that four different developers have expressed interest in The Quarter in the past year and a half.
Certainly, there's an incentive for the city to push the project forward. "The TIF is ticking," Keehner said. The district was established in the late 1990s and lasts for 23 years. The longer the project drags on, the less opportunity there is for developers and the city to capitalize on the increased property values.
The irony is that when the Quarter was established, it was seen as the spark that could ignite new development in East Moline's traditional downtown. Now the roles might be reversed. The speed of owner- and city-led improvements downtown could help push the Quarter forward.
Still, a sea change for East Moline is going to take time, and Keehner pleaded for patience. "We're serious about downtown development," he said. "Our downtown didn't die overnight. It's not going to be revived overnight."
Yet even a converted skeptic promises that the steps undertaken by the government and property owners in East Moline will bear fruit in the next few years. "People will notice that East Moline has changed," Nissen said.
Taking a Chance on East Moline
Sam McFarland doesn't do things the typical way. A visual artist by training, she gave up a job in graphic design to open a different sort of tattoo shop in East Moline.
Painted Monkey Tattoo, at 910 15th Avenue, has an upscale, feminine look, with McFarland's paintings hanging on the walls and a brightly colored interior. It's a far cry from the biker and horror-movie motifs of most tattoo parlors. "The [typical tattoo] places always seem creepy," she said.
McFarland grew up in the Quad Cities and got a fine-arts degree in 1996 from Illinois State University. She did graphic design in Chicago and Los Angeles. She returned to the Quad Cities seven years ago, still working in graphic design. "I enjoy it," she said of her field, "but I really missed hands-on fine arts."
Becoming a tattoo artists certainly qualifies as "hands on."
Beyond the fine-arts bent of her shop, McFarland's parlor offers something else unusual: She uses all disposable tubes and needles. "I like disposable," she said. "I like the idea." Although that equipment costs a few dollars more per tattoo, she said the safety and piece-of-mind are appealing.
McFarland opened Painted Monkey in September and admits that business has been slow. Not having money for marketing is one component of that, as is the fact that tattoo parlors are busier in the warmer months. But it doesn't help that East Moline simply doesn't have much foot traffic - or much traffic, period. McFarland said there are roughly 10 empty storefronts within a few blocks east and west of her parlor.
She said that although there have been improvements in downtown East Moline, the city is "not doing anything to market downtown," or to draw traffic to it.
McFarland said that to keep her skills sharp as her business establishes itself, she tattoos unconventional flesh: "I worked on fruit for a long time," she said. She also had a yarn shop before she started tattooing, and she still spins yarn.
McFarland thinks that East Moline should market itself to artists, noting that "rent is really acceptable." She added: "Artists tend to go where it's cheap to go."
That jibes to a certain extent with what the City of East Moline recognizes about its downtown. "Our downtown is different," said Rich Keehner, the city's assistant city administrator, with an emphasis on specialty business.
For more information on Painted Monkey Tattoo, call (309)236-0828 or visit (http://www.samsartlab.com).
