Silvis: Housing market spurs commercial growth
SILVIS, Ill. — Silvis Mayor Lyle Lohse likes what he sees along Avenue of the Cities in this Rock Island County community.
He just never knew it could happen.
“The housing market has been good for a few years,” he said. “I always felt we could build houses but could not bring in commercial (development) to town. We seem to be doing that. The Hynd Farm project is moving forward, and that is good for the city.”
Construction began a year ago on an Ace Hardware store — located inside a new strip mall — on the 70-acre former Hynd Farm, surrounded by retail, housing and other development in an area bordered by 10th Street to the east, Avenue of the Cities to the south, Hospital Road to the west and Illini Drive to the north.
On July 25, the new Ace opened.
“So far, things have been going good for us,” said Lanny Herron, owner of the hardware store.
And he likes the idea of more development coming to the site.
“I welcome as much development as possible. The more traffic flow, the better. We are seeing a good mix from areas like Silvis, Colona, East Moline, the river towns,” he said.
But things did not come easily, according to City Administrator Jim Grafton. When the former farm was ready to be developed a few years ago, nothing happened.
“The property sat for three years, no nibbles, no nothing,” he said. “We were told we didn’t have enough rooftops. Developers concentrated on new homes. Well, we have nearly 250 new homes built in the last five years.”
That attracted a new commercial development group that includes Ben Eastep and Tim Baldwin. And things have moved since.
About 11 additional homes and Rock Valley Physical Therapy also have been built north of Avenue of the Cities by the group, Baldwin said.
He said the area between 10th Avenue and Hospital Road and Illini Drive to the north is dedicated to medical-related offices. Nearby, there is Hynd Farm Estates, the residential community of single-family and multi-family housing.
“The first phase is 19 lots,” he said. “There are four or five lots left. Many are living there. Several homes have been built so far. There is room for 50 or more homes in all three phases. They are selling just about as fast as they are being built.”
Anytime Fitness will be in one strip center, which is part of Ace Hardware, as will another retail business that Baldwin said he is unable to identify at this time.
“That building is full,” he said. “And we are entertaining a national fast food chain to occupy the corner across the street, across from Heavenly Pizza.”
There also will be room for additional retail space in another strip center. He said a new street is going in between the Ace building and Heavenly Pizza.
Heather and Paul DelVecchio of Bettendorf own and will operate the Anytime Fitness center next to Ace. They hope to open by mid-October.
“I have been a stay-at-home mom the last eight years, and my husband is a golf professional,” Heather said. “Anytime Fitness is a national franchise. There are over 1,000 nationwide and growing.”
They also are building another site in Rock Island. She said Anytime Fitness is accessible with a membership key 24 hours a day if someone wants to work out.
“That is very appealing to people. It is a growing trend; more and more discovering the benefits of fitness, more and more are going 24 hours,” she said. “This is really a new concept in fitness hitting the Quad-Cities.”
Bob Schilling owns and operates Saint Giu Seppe’s Heavenly Pizza on 53rd Street in Moline and will build a larger, sit-down Italian restaurant by the same name on the westernmost spot in this development in Silvis, which is not part of the Baldwin and Eastep’s investment group.
Schilling sold his parcel to another developer and will have a leasing agreement for his restaurant. “We will have a lot of different speciality pizzas, and expanded Italian-style dishes.” Next to Heavenly Pizza will be IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union.
Meanwhile, Baldwin said his group also donated land near Ace Hardware to the City of Silvis that is targeted to be the site of a second Silvis fire station.
“We have been in negotiations with the developers about putting a fire station there,” Lohse said. “We need to get something in the middle of town for response time rather than just 1st Avenue,” where the current station sits.
Though nothing is definite in terms of getting the new fire station built, he said he believes the concept is moving forward.
“The developers offered the site to us,” Grafton said. “It complements growth to the city on the south side of town. All of this is coming together at a perfect time for us.”
Doug Schorpp can be contacted at (563) 383-2292 or dschorpp@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.