- PNC is proud to support business forward, where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in central Illinois.

(music playing) - Welcome to business forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

This is going to be a great show.

I've got mayor John Call, the mayor of East Peoria and Rick Swan, the executive director of the East Peoria Chamber of Commerce.

Welcome Mr. Mayor.

- Thank you.

- Welcome Rick.

- Thank you for having us.

- When I think of East Peoria, I think of movement.

I think movement equals money and it equals happiness and it equals business, right?

And so as mayor, it's probably one of your top focuses, I would think, is that right?

- Absolutely.

Name of the game is to keep the city moving forward.

- And so when you're, we're just going to jump right in.

- No problem.

- From a business standpoint, how do you as mayor, look at, I think from a daily basis, how do you attract new business to the region?

- It's not easy, right?

I can tell you that.

And that takes a lot of good people, a lot of working parts.

And part of that is having a great relationship with our Chamber of Commerce and, and Rick and I worked very, very closely along with our planning and development, Ty Livingston.

He does a great job.

- He does.

- You're always, listen, you can't rush back on your laurels and expect something to come to you.

You have to always go out and seek these opportunities and it takes a team to do that.

- So Rick, when you're looking from the chamber point of view, what's the exact role that the chamber has, or you have in your team in trying to drive new business here, how do you do that?

- Well, it's multifaceted as the mayor mentioned, but the relationship we have is the key.

- Okay.

- Working with the city, knowing what they're looking for and knowing what's needed, it's just going out two parts, making sure that the existing businesses have what they need, because you don't want to lose what you have.

And that's the important part today is trying to keep the businesses that are here functioning as they should be.

And then looking at the new businesses, what opportunities are there?

You want to get something that's not just hot right now.

You want something that's going to be here for awhile because there's so many sustainability.

- That sustainability piece is key.

- And you have to show people why they should be here, you know, because everyone's competing for that same nugget out there.

So you have to be better than the other people that are out there, the communities that are looking.

So we team team together, it's very, very important when you can take the mayor to a meeting, - Right.

- And say, hey, mayor, call's going to be here.

Mayor's got all the answers.

You know, that, you know, it went back to mayor Mingus.

And before Dave.

They would go to these meetings and with prospective businesses, you cut through about three other meetings that way.

You get right to the point and you get right to what's there.

And it works very, very well.

- Yeah.

I mean, it makes a good point.

You're in a meeting, it's a different feel.

You may not have all the answers, but you'll get all the answers.

- Oh, absolutely.

And that is huge.

And we've met, listen, East Peoria.

Although we feel that we've been blessed in many ways over the course of the last decade, 20 years, really.

And that has a lot to do with the mayors, the previous mayors and the vision that they had for the city, especially that downtown area.

But, you know, we've not always a won, everyone that we sat in a meeting on, and maybe we didn't have all the things that they were looking for to come to this area.

But you know, you never know, 50% of it is showing up.

- Yeah.

- And yeah, absolutely right.

- Does data, how important is data to these companies coming in?

Because take a restaurant as an example, there's a lot of restaurants over there.

- Right.

- What data do they look at to decide whether East Peoria or any city in the middle Illinois?

- That's what I think a lot of people, and I'll be honest with you.

I was one of those people prior to being elected that had no comprehension of all the legwork that goes into this.

You look at some of these larger chain type stores or restaurants.

They have teams that go out and look at the various markets and they analyze this data.

So a lot of times, and we've learned that, and East Peoria, we're a community of 23,000 people.

However, you have 50,000 people moving through the city each and every day, just due to our location and what we offer there.

So, that's a huge component.

And sometimes, you find out that you just don't, he don't hit those marks, right?

- They look at income, you know, the income levels of the community.

They look at surrounding for example, 90 miles.

A hundred miles, like a Costco.

What can they gather who's competition within that range?

They're so detailed.

In fact, when we met with Bass Pro, when we brought them, they knew how many hunting and fishing licenses were issued within the areas of a mile radius.

So they, they do their homework, traffic patterns, I-74, which flows through East Peoria, you know, all the bridges that we have, the four bridges, you know, what's the traffic flow?

But then where they are going to locate and, you know, and then the downtown of Peoria, the downtown of East Peoria, Morton all the people going to work back and forth to the hospitals and things.

So they look at, you know, what that traffic is.

- Yeah.

And I think, you know, probably from the chamber point of view too, is where you were looking at the past decade as being a manufacturing town.

And now it's a more of a medical hub and that probably plays into what businesses and restaurants and types of businesses that come in in the region period.

- It is.

And, you know, but still, the manufacturing is still important to us.

- It's huge, it's huge.

- And people lose sight of that.

One of the other factors that you have is the building trades, for example.

A huge component of the carpenters and laborers, the steamfitters, all of those folks that are part of that sector that work in within the region.

So that's, you know, those people are here.

It's multifaceted.

- It is, I was talking to Clint Drury, if you bring up the trades, Rick.

Very, very important piece of what we do here.

And, you know, you bring in business, you have to build.

- Right.

- But let's talk about what Clint and I were talking about is how do you attract people to actually take some of these jobs?

Because you could bring in a cool restaurant that maybe is only typically in the suburbs, somewhere up north, but if you don't have people working it?

- That's a huge problem for everyone.

Especially in this day and age, as we've seen those incentives through this pandemic, there's a whole another dynamic here.

And I would, I would go as far as saying, I think you saw a shortage in workforce prior to the pandemic, not obviously to the levels that we've seen here, but speaking of the trades, I know it's the same challenge for them.

You know, let's say we have these opportunities where, you know, you have worked for these folks, where are the workers?

I mean, you know, now you have these opportunities, however, there's no one to fulfill those jobs.

- So yeah, I was talking recently to Dr. Sheila Quirk Bailey at ICC, and she's talking about this workforce initiative and getting these kids to say, hey you, not everybody is suited to go on to four years.

Let's get this certificate in welding.

Let's do this in trucking business.

Let's do this in restaurant management and whatever it may be, that is really a new way of thinking.

It used to be, I'm just going to go get a job at Avantis, - Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, she's done an outstanding job and we have a very good relationship with her.

And obviously not just from the manufacturing, but when it comes to the trades, and I, you think back high school days, right?

And some people kind of already knew what, you know, their vision is.

Let's say I'm going to go into college and this is what I want to do in a career field.

But there are a lot of people that are undecided during those years.

And those are the people that you need to get out and engage.

And that's why I think, you know, having these job fairs and things of that sort, where he bring the trades in, you'd bring ICC and, you know, and you show these folks, listen, you know, you just have to go down that career path.

And for those that are undecided, take a look at this.

This could be a great fit for you and there's a need.

- And a lot of kids, when they're going in and looking at a place to potentially live, they need a vision because a lot of kids have no clue what they're, what they're getting into.

So I think one of the things that the trades, as an example are doing a pretty good job of is showing a vision of this is what you can do.

- Absolutely.

- And that's carpentry, that's welding - It's your career.

- It's your career.

- We work very closely with EDC and Dr. Quirk Bailey at the ICC.

We've done that for years and trying to develop that network of workers and showing the young people, the new initiative 2030, that we're working on also is attraction of people from not this area, but people from say Chicago and Indy and places, the big cities, showing them what we have here.

You know, the cost of living is lower.

The travel time is much lower.

We've got all the amenities here that you would need as far as, you know, civic center with plays and events.

So, you know, we have a lot of things here to offer.

And I don't know, over the years that we've probably done as well as we could.

We need to be better at that showing affordable housing and all the other things that I mentioned.

So to draw people to the area and, and through the epidemic, because the mayor said, a lot of people work from home.

So now they can work anywhere in the country.

They can work anywhere and they can find a place like the Peoria area that the cost of living as much better, good schools, good place to raise a family.

And we have, again, a lot of things that they're needed.

- And you bank more money.

- Exactly.

- And it's a true statement.

I mean, I live in Peoria, but I'm in East Peoria everyday.

And the reason why is because my son plays baseball, I go to east side center four days a week.

I go to sluggers.

I go to all these different places, meaning we eat restaurants over there.

So I think, you know, maybe this question is to you mayor.

I think what leadership has done.

And I think it started with Mingus and artists is that it wasn't a competition.

Like it had always been in the past.

It had been, there's always going to be competition, but there's also a piece of collaboration because what Rick was saying is true.

If you're seeing now this net migration out of these huge cities.

So you've got St. Louis, Indy and Chicago all within two and a half hours away, three hours away.

And people do not want to live in downtown Chicago right now, spending what they're spending when you can live in a place like East Peoria.

- Right.

Oh, absolutely.

And you know, I'm glad you brought that up because as mayor, one of my goals is to focus on the region as a whole, not just East Peoria, I represent East Peoria, but you know, I think there's a lot of opportunity.

And especially now more so than ever for us to all focus on things that are important to the region and draw more people in here, you know, one of the things that I'd like to see, and I don't know, you know, Illinois is a tough place to do business in and you know, some things we can not control and I get that, but you know, to Rick's point, you look at all the attributes we have here as a region, maybe we use those, we pull our resources together and say, let's focus on what we can bring to the region that benefits the region.

- Right.

- You know, I mean it benefits all of us.

- Yeah.

So.

- You know Rick, this goes to another thing and you've heard me speak before.

because I say it all the time.

It's every one of our jobs to take care of our community.

- That's true.

- I always believe that.

So I don't care what you do.

I don't care if you drive a bus.

If you work at a nonprofit, if you're the mayor, it doesn't matter.

The job is to take care of the community because our kids go here, they go to school here we work here.

This is where, you can gripe all you want, but it doesn't do anything.

- No.

- We need to take more action as a community.

And I'm seeing it more.

I'm starting to feel it more.

And I think it feels good and it makes me want to live here the rest of my life.

- And to that point, we've got a lot of young folks now, you know, I'm 70 now.

And you know, the 50 year olds and now you've got the younger generation coming up, the 25s.

And that's one of the 2030 marketing campaign is to target that 25 to 30, 35-year old person to come here and families and start out.

And, and again, it is aggravating, when you hear people complain, complain, complain about this area.

Well, when's the last time you've been to, you know, a wildlife Prairie Park or when's the last time you'd been to Riverfront Museum or a game or Bradley game or something that you know is here.

And so, it's frustrating sometimes, but a lot of great efforts are out there.

And I know we've started a branding campaign and looking at things we can do better obviously.

And so, yeah.

It's a bright future.

- Good.

All right.

Let's talk about festival of lights.

- Yeah.

- Who wants to jump in on that one?

- Well, go ahead, mayor.

- Well, listen, we're super proud of it.

It's a standing tradition and you know, it's generational.

Of course, that was one of my mothers.

She's no longer with us, but that was one of her favorite things to do.

- Oh really?

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, that began when I was in high school, actually.

So, we won the big national award there last year, the heavyweight championship.

And we had a huge influx of people come to see the parade last year because a lot of things were locked down and we weren't.

And that was something that people could come enjoy, get their families out.

And we had a record turnout last year and now we're really anticipating a much larger crowd, but to Rick's credit here, we've reached out to regional partners.

You know, the hope is not just to bring them through, to see the parade or the Winter Wonderland, but to get them to go to the Riverfront Museum, do different things while they're here.

Maybe stay for a couple days.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So, you know, we're pretty excited.

- It is cool.

And I tell you, what's neat about it is, it brings people from all over.

- Oh, absolutely.

- That's, what's amazing about it.

- When you look at the Doug and I are up there a lot in the evenings and just watch license plates come through and it's Wisconsin, Indiana, and Nebraska, Ohio, it's all over.

Even Alaska.

We've seen plates from Alaska.

Now obviously they're probably here for something, but it's just that the people that are there, the letters we get, the phone calls, we get people asking about it.

And the mayor's point we were north of 35,000 vehicles last year.

- Wow.

- Average years, about 25, 26.

And last year we were over 35,000.

So we anticipate more this year.

- So let's say you get to 40,000.

- Think of the impact.

Oh, I mean, if you're a restaurant, right, you better get geared up.

- They need to get geared up.

Cause I can promise you it's coming.

- It's coming.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Do you have stats as mayor that says the economic impact, is this because of this or are those hard to... - Those are hard to measure.

They really are, but it's, there's no question.

I mean, you don't have to get around East Peoria to figure out.

Hey, you know, it's people are here to see the lights.

I mean, it's hard to, hard to move around.

- When you look at the cars and you see the sacks of food and things, and the bags from different, you know, stores and things the people have been to.

And, you know, usually you have a weight.

So we talked to the people and say, Hey, how are you enjoying it?

Yeah, sure.

I didn't really like the two and a half hour, wait ahead.

But now we're here and we're going through and Friday and Saturday nights, it's no secret.

And we publicize it and say, just probably going to be a couple of hours to three hours.

- Be patient.

And so we, people deal with it.

They know.

- Heaven forbid.

You have to spend time with your family.

- Well, true.

(laughing) - Well, I'm thinking after this last year and a half, they probably spent plenty of time with their family.

- No, I do have to share the, the greatest, one of the greatest moments Doug and I had were one night, we were coming down the hill Springfield Road, and Jimmy John's car pulled over across Springfield Road, stopped, ran out, delivered a bag to the person in line and took off.

So I mean the Uber and the delivery thing, now that people are really getting into that.

So it's great in regard.

- Yeah.

- But no, as John said it's generational now.

And it's just been a great event for us.

The winning of the heavyweight that's, that's a complete story.

We could do a whole show on that.

- That's cool though.

- It was fun.

- Yeah.

- So, you know, when I think of a city, you think of everything from cleanliness to streets, to you name it, just economic development, but it seems like East Peoria has got something going on at all times.

So now I see a new residence in.

- Yeah.

- And so how do you, how does a company like Marriott, sit here or Hilton or whoever and say, you know what we need to go over here?

- Well, it's interesting.

That was in the works for a while.

And the pandemic hit and the ownership there, they also own the Holiday Inn express down by Bass Pro.

And they felt like as long as the city was committed to them, they'd remained committed to the city.

And, you know, once again, it goes back into studies, you know, East Peoria, we are unique.

You look at the number of hotels and people are like, ah, geez, we don't need another one.

We fill them.

And we really do.

And between east side, when you look at that residence in which is an extended stay, you know, one point in time that was meant for business travelers that were going to be here for an extended period of time.

While you look at our medical community, look at the growth here.

So you look at the target audiences between sports and medical, there's a need for it.

There's a demand.

- The importance of a place like the East Side Center.

Some of my best memories are at East Side Center because I've been coaching my son.

You know, it's like, if you personalize it sometimes too, that's what a community, a small community can do.

- Yeah.

- It's awesome.

So there's also new apartments.

- Yeah.

We have a $50 million development that will just sit just west of where City Halls at.

So literally right outside the west side, there's an L-shape property that sits on the roundabout.

Yeah.

So it'll include a 230, we use the term luxury, but it's market rate apartments.

They're high end, high quality, The developers out of Indianapolis.

And they just, They have like these five-star developments and, you know, the city, part of the downtown 2010 vision included residential and that component was never fulfilled.

And so that was one of the goals that, that we've had within the last five or six years was to define that little niche.

And we went out and sought some ideas and developers and we'd landed with these folks.

And then once again, we thought, oh man, here we are in heading into the pandemic.

So we did just do a TIF extension working with the other taxing bodies to make sure this thing is still a go.

So we should see some groundbreaking, I would say in the spring.

Yeah, that's awesome.

- Think about this, Rick.

Your job's kind of fun.

- Oh, it's I say it might be the best job in the world.

- It really is because you get to see the fun, and I guess you get to see the tough times too, but you get to see a lot of great stories with a lot of great people.

And I think that's the best thing about our region is the people.

- Because again, as the mayor, we work with everyone in the region, contrary to what people like to talk about.

If they're talking that we don't work together, they don't know what they're talking about because we do.

And, you know, just as the mayor mentioned, you know, with the new apartment complex, that's going to be great because, you know, with all the attractions that we have in the area, and he mentioned, we're working with the Civic Center and Cat Visitor Center, the museum and Kim Blinken staff's group, as far as things to do during the Christmas holidays.

And this will extend further out and all the trails that we have, the running, walking, biking, trails, all of the things that are here.

Very important.

And so, and you know, what the medical community, the other thing that's going to happen over the next few years is the building.

You know, we talked about the trades with all the infrastructure work.

There's going to be a lot of workers in this area, working on roads and bridges and all of those things.

- You're already starting to see it everywhere.

- So I think, you know, the future looks good.

The future looks very good.

- And that was one of my next questions.

Three to five years, mayor, what does it look like in East Peoria?

- I think you're going to see, he briefly touched on this branding thing.

Well, the branding thing involves a lot of different entities in East Peoria.

You know, one of the goals that I have is to tell our story and what is that well telling our story.

Isn't just retaining the people and the, and the businesses that are there.

Now it's attracting new residents and new businesses and really making the region a vibrant place to not just live for those of us that live here, but all the wonderful things that we can enjoy.

So once in three to five years, we're going to continue to be proactive and making sure that we take steps moving forward.

We don't just sit back and, and hope that everybody.

Yeah.

Right.

- Well, you know, I just want to tell you, the businesses that have come in are impressive and it drives so many different things and it's good to see.

You've got a good right-hand over here in Rick.

- Absolutely.

The best.

- Well-respected in every aspect of everything that is being done.

Well, I want to thank you guys for coming on because I love our region.

It's one of the reasons why I wanted to do this show is to talk about the great things that people do, and keep it up.

Rick Swan.

You're going to be busy from here on out because you've got the festival, right?

- Well, we've got that.

Tonight, we got the business expo festival, but the key Matt, I think in closing is we need to get the workers to... - We need to get the workers.

We're gonna stop it there.

I appreciate it.

Get the workers.

I'm Matt George.

And this is another episode of Business Forward.

(music playing) (music playing) (music playing) (music playing) - Thank you for tuning in to Business Forward, brought to you by PNC.