A bridge to the future: Penned-in no more, Moline eyes growth

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By Jennifer DeWitt | Monday, June 11, 2007 1:07 AM CDT | () comments

Long plagued by its landlocked status, Moline sees the Veterans Memorial Bridge at Carr’s Crossing as the key to opening the door to more rooftops, more businesses —and better access to thriving John Deere Road.

The completion of the span between Milan and Moline/Rock Island will provide a direct route into the heart of Moline’s busiest commercial corridor — directing traffic into a sea of big box retailers and to Trinity Medical Center-7th Street Campus and the surrounding medical offices.

“What Moline is most excited about is the access we’ll have south of the Rock River,” said Ray Forsythe, the city’s economic development director. “Because we’re landlocked, all of our growth will be south of the airport and the Rock River.”

Housing developments such as The Bluffs at Pryce Farm and The Bluffs at Case Creek already are in the works, giving Moline its biggest housing boom in years. With new housing will be the need for more neighborhood retail services, businesses such as dry cleaners, banks and convenience stores.

“Like any community where a major infrastructure is built, typically development follows it,” said Jim Bowman, the executive director of Renew Moline and the city’s former economic development director. “We’ll see significant activity in the next five years.”

Asked if Milan has more to gain, he said “It depends on how you measure the gain. Clearly a lot of undeveloped land is in unincorporated Milan that the new bridge will serve — we expect Milan to be a direct benefactor, and Milan deserves it. But this is a good thing for Moline, too. It grows the pie.”

Forsythe said there has been more speculation about development on the Milan side “because there is more greenspace there.” On the Moline side of the bridge, John Deere Road “is pretty much built out.”

But the additional traffic flowing into what is one of Moline’s busiest corridors bodes well for the businesses that are there, said Jeff Anderson, Moline’s city planner. “We look at it as a win-win. It offers great opportunities for both communities.”

He said Moline still has developable sites on the north side and the far east end of John Deere Road, which may develop at a faster pace once the bridge opens.

Much of the increased traffic is likely to be the people already frequenting the area for shopping or for medical services.

“We like to think the bridge will bring increased traffic,” said Jennifer Verscha, the marketing manager at SouthPark Mall. “Being off I-74, we already do get people from cities farther out coming in.” But easier access, she said, “might help shoppers make more frequent trips to the mall.”

A change in traffic patterns already is occurring as the result of the bridge’s approaches and realignment along John Deere Road/Blackhawk Road. And SouthPark and the neighboring tenants see an influx of traffic along 52nd Avenue, or the “back side” of SouthPark Mall.

It has changed habits for Gary Ferns, the owner of Heavenly Ham, near 16th Street and 52nd Avenue. “When I first bought the store, we could drive out the front driveway anytime you wanted. Since they opened, there’s a lot of time you have to wait to get out. It seems like we’re picking up more business.”

Like the mall, Trinity Medical Center expects access to its Moline campus will be simplified. “Literally, that ramp takes you to our back door,” said Bill Leaver, the president and chief executive officer of Trinity Regional Health System. Personally, Leaver is looking forward to shaving 10 minutes off his daily commute when the bridge opens.

“I think we’re going to see a lot more development — I’m seeing it now as I drive in … ,” he said. In fact, physicians looking for locations to set up practice as well as where to live “now are taking the bridge into account. If it spurs growth of more rooftops, more development, more people — then yes, it will mean more people coming to us.”

But city officials do not expect all the growth south of the river to be limited to housing. Past the bluffs that line the south side of the airport, “There are some nice level developable sites,” Anderson said. “We hope it can accommodate a variety of land uses — residential, commercial, industrial and maybe technology.”

Even the airport, which owns about 30 acres along the Rock Island-Milan Parkway, is expecting to get into the development game. “I think we have some attractive parcels that will be able to be marketed,” said Bruce Carter, the airport’s aviation director. That is ground the airport would lease, rather than sell.

“A lot of businesses don’t want to build on leased ground, but we’d go out 50 years or more,” he said, adding that the airport has hired a developer to market the property.