fbpx

Proud to CHOOSE GREATER PEORIA

August 28, 2024

Distillery Labs: Plan + Hard Work = Payoff

 

I hope you saw the news about the opening of Distillery Labs at the end of July. Even better, I hope you were one of the 200 or so people who were celebrating with us. For some people, the Distillery Labs project was a nice little construction project that took about a year. They might remember the “hammer swinging” ceremony in the summer of 2023 and maybe peeked in the window or drove by and saw the construction. And while the construction and ultimate ribbon cutting was the physical end of this important initiative, it’s literally only 1/8th of the story.

In 2016, Greater Peoria EDC, a group called Startup Peoria, and a host of other local stakeholders convened to talk about an opportunity to construct a center of innovation and entrepreneurship in Peoria to serve as the heart of a burgeoning startup community. That group understood what is even more clear today: to truly build a resilient economy, you need to build a diverse one. While anchor and legacy employers are a vitally important part of our foundation, and attracting new investment will always be a priority, the region also needed a better way of developing new businesses. Greater Peoria was (and is) blessed with tremendous innovation assets: Caterpillar’s Tech Center, the AgLab, OSF Innovation, Bradley University, the U of I College of Medicine, and more. We had (and have) great facilities like Peoria Next, but needed a different layer than business incubation – we needed a place that helped germinate ideas, to inspire individuals.

This was the plan, and I don’t want to undersell the value of having a plan. A focus on entrepreneurship was embedded in the work of Greater Peoria EDC. We made it a plank in our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). We absorbed Startup Peoria as our own program. We expanded the Nest co-working space and developed new programming. For the EDC, supporting startups was equally important as more traditional activities like business attraction, business assistance and workforce development.

But we had lots of help! Caterpillar and the US Economic Development Administration funded the first feasibility study for a startup center (then called “Catalyst”). The initial effort had dozens of members of its planning team and committees. When momentum stalled in the face of financial hurdles, our startup community doubled down on emphasizing the importance of this strategy in less capital-intensive but equally important ways. With the amazing help and generosity of OSF Healthcare, we took advantage of a new vein of funding and opportunity in the form of the newly created Illinois Innovation Network (IIN). This statewide group hosted by the University of Illinois System provided the initial funding for Distillery Labs. And when the $10 million state grant fell short of the full cost of making this dream a reality, the US EDA once again stepped in to help finish what they helped start with the final $2 million. It was truly a group effort and a group win.

If you’ve seen me at Distillery Labs since it opened, you’ll have noticed a pretty big grin on my face. I’m enormously proud of this place, both for the role I played but the role that Greater Peoria EDC played. From the first concept to the last coat of paint, the EDC was central to this initiative. I have no problem bragging about that! That is the value of having an institution that has the staying power to see complex, long-term projects to their completion. For 40 years, Greater Peoria EDC has been at the center of important conversations, plans and actions about our regional economy, and we plan to be here for another 40 years. But the victory is not for the EDC staff alone. We exist because of our investors – companies and governments who recognize that economic development is both a team sport and a long game. So anyone who has ever supported Greater Peoria EDC should have just as big a grin as I wear when you walk through those doors. This is your win, too.

The work isn’t over. Opening the doors is the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. If we want to fulfill the promise that entrepreneurship and innovation brings, we all need to lean in in the exact we’ve done for these past eight years. I can’t wait to see what happens next.