Chicago Construction News staff writer
The Peoria City Council voted last week to support a plan that could bring a 5,000-seat outdoor amphitheater to the city’s riverfront, thanks to an $11 million donation from the Hengst Foundation.
Council members approved a letter of intent detailing that the foundation would pay for the venue and the city would cover infrastructure improvements and take responsibility for ongoing maintenance.
The city will provide vacant land near the RiverPlex and construction could be completed in 12 to 18 months after groundbreaking.
Under the proposal, the city would skip the traditional bidding process, allowing Hengst to select the construction project team. He has already chosen Texas-based CORE Construction, along with Terra Engineering and Epstein Architects.
The Letter of Intent provides that the Foundation will have authority over the design of the Amphitheater, to include specifying the design professionals and construction entities that will be retained for the project and the city will have approval authority over the design and will directly retain and supervise the construction of the project.
City Manager Patrick Urich said the agreement is not finalized and a formal donation contract is expected to come before council within the next two months.
