Illinois Construction News staff writer
City and state officials took turns swinging hammers into walls to mark the beginning of construction of Distillery Labs innovation center in Peoria.
The 40,000 plus sq. ft. building will be completely renovated to house a world-class startup and technology incubation center complete with public education and training facilities, offices and coworking areas, and maker spaces including a commercial test kitchen, cut-and-sew, and prototyping equipment.
Distillery Labs is funded through $10 million in state grants, $2 million in federal grants, and private and public support.
In April the Distillery Labs board of directors announced completion of its public construction bid process and approval from both the state and federal granting agencies to move to the next phase of redevelopment of the previous Illinois Central College building at 201 SW Adams.
The construction team, led by PointCore as construction manager and The Farnsworth Group and Gensler as architects and engineers expect the grand opening of Distillery Labs in mid-2024.
“We’re all breathing a sigh of relief that we’ve finally reached the construction phase,” said Chris Setti, interim executive director and member of the board of directors for Distillery Labs. “Inflation headwinds, labor shortages, and general supply chain issues in construction resulted in unfortunate delays over the last two years, but the team has worked incredibly hard to create a project the entire Greater Peoria region can be proud of and will support our local entrepreneurs and innovators for decades to come.”
