iBi - December 2008

Director of Economic Development - City of Peoria
Craig Hullinger has served as the Director of Economic Development for the City of Peoria since 2005. A member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, he is a strong advocate for redevelopment of the city’s inner core. He and his wife, Beth Ruyle Hullinger, have two children and live on High Street in Peoria.
iBi Focus

Economic Development

  • After a year of gradual decline beginning with the onset of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, the speed with which the financial curtains came crashing down in mid-September was startling—and downright frightening.
East Peoria/Downtown 2010
by Amy Groh
While downtown renovation projects sprout up across the country, few communities are afforded the opportunity to create a downtown from scratch. Yet that is exactly the situation in which East Peoria finds itself. With the East Peoria/Downtown 2010 project taking shape, the city has a unique chance to create something that will set it apart.
Successes and Challenges
by Mayor Gary Manier and City Administrator Bob Morris
The City of Washington continues to experience rapid growth and development, but growth clearly comes with a price tag.
by Jennifer Daly
Affluent and upscale, nestled between two growing metro areas, home to dozens of successful, locally owned enterprises, and endowed with a sea of perfect infrastructure leading to vacant, shovel-ready sites lying along two major interstates. What more could an economic developer ask for?
by Steve Brown
Having diversified since the recession of the mid-1980s, the City of Pekin has experienced a number of economic successes, including Riverway Business Park, an expanded transportation network and Illinois Central College's new South campus.
Doug Whitley, Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Overall, Illinois is above average in many categories, but we’re slipping in some key economic measures.
One of the elements the city has always lacked is an identifiable central business district.
The acres of concrete on the East Peoria/Downtown 2010 site may be gray, but the project has a green foundation.
“Densberger’s presentation on East Peoria 2010 took economic theory and brought it to life for my students."
This project will train students in career paths, fill a void in the downtown, strengthen the community’s relationship with labor, and create economic development and tax revenue.
We are seeing new jobs, businesses are expanding and there is exciting potential on the horizon.
With my background in business, a challenge was presented to me to begin the Delavan Economic Development Council.
Can a community be crafted to grow the way it needs to? Absolutely. Will it grow without help? Maybe. But perhaps not the way it should.
The Central Illinois Rural Coalition on Development is an organization of leaders from rural communities within central Illinois.

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In September, Illinois Central College released a book featuring profiles of 126 black professionals who live and work in Peoria.
Did you know that the first American to be reimbursed by the FDIC was a woman from East Peoria?