Long-Awaited Federal Courthouse in Rock Island Plans October Opening
Nearly four years after its groundbreaking, a long-anticipated $47-million, three-story building is expected to open in downtown Rock Island in October.
Davenport-based Russell Co. is general contractor for the 55,438-square-foot federal facility, at 320 18th St., across the street from the former Rock Island Argus building (vacant since 2008). The privately-owned, leased building – originally expected to open in late summer 2023 – will house several federal government tenants, including the United States District Court, Central District of Illinois. The old federal courthouse in downtown Rock Island closed in 2018, and the court’s business has been done in the downtown Davenport courthouse in the interim, until this past year or so when Central District of Illinois judges have worked out of the courthouse in Peoria.
In 2014, Russell collaborated with leadership of Bituminous Insurance (BITCO) to design and develop a new national headquarters for the century-old organization, which relocated from the Rock Island 18th Street property to 3700 Market Square Circle, Davenport.
The three-story federal courthouse in downtown Rock Island is estimated to have cost $47 million for exterior and interior construction (photo by Jonathan Turner).
As part of the deal, Russell purchased the original BITCO facility in downtown Rock Island, to allow the new BITCO $7-million building to be constructed, and sold the original outdated property to an investment group in 2017. Since 2017, the former BITCO facility sat vacant in a state of disrepair, with no possibility of reuse, and it was demolished in fall 2021.
The new project is owned and developed by Rock Island Investors, Inc., a special purpose entity which includes Russell and KATCO Resources Inc. KATCO Resources, Inc., owned by Mike Fishman and Jeff Eirinberg, has headquarters in Rock Island.
A groundbreaking for the new federal courthouse was held in November 2021 and construction on the building started in March 2022, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which will lease the building.
A GSA spokesperson recently by e-mail: “The tenant improvements required by the government to occupy this lease began in September 2023. The building should be open to the public this October but all dates are subject to change.” The GSA public affairs office did not respond to other detailed questions about the project and representatives from Russell referred questions to the GSA.
The entrance of the new federal courthouse, for the Central District of Illinois (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“The new federal building is unique in that it is a privately-owned, tax-producing property being leased to seven different federal agencies,” city Community Development Director Miles Brainard said by e-mail. “Each of those agencies has different and sometimes conflicting needs. It makes it all the more impressive that the developer successfully accommodated them within a reasonable timeframe. As the offices get up and running, the increased daytime office activity will be a boon to downtown businesses, especially restaurants. Hopefully, this project will be a catalyst that spurs further investment in the area. Downtown Rock Island is full of opportunities.”
Jack Cullen, Rock Island Downtown Alliance executive director, did not respond to requests for comment. Mayor Ashley Harris also could not be reached for comment.
“It has been frustrating, no doubt about that — not just for the general public, but tenants,” former Mayor Mike Thoms (who lost his bid for re-election in the spring) said Tuesday about the delayed opening. He heard about 100 people are expected to work in the new building, including the U.S. Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The GSA spokesperson could not confirm the tenants, number of staff or building cost.
Thoms noted that construction of the building shell itself cost $20 million and $27 million has been spent on the interior, with much of the delays stemming from disagreements about interior design and location of offices.
“There was a lot of dispute amongst the seven over who goes on the first floor,” he said. “They did the lobby, and one of the agencies said this doesn’t meet our specifications, so they had to strip out the floor tile, change things, and that led to more delays.”
Rock Island Mayor Ashley Harris at the new city sign in front of the new lawn on the corner of 18th Street and 2nd Avenue.
Thoms has spoken with Sara Darrow, the Chief U.S. District Judge for this district, who also has been dismayed by the Rock Island Courthouse delays. “I have talked to Russell and to her, and both of them are extremely frustrated with how the process has gone.”
When he was mayor, Thoms also got a lot of questions from residents, on a regular basis, on the project status.
“Some people think are they going to abandon it, maybe it was one of the Trump cuts,” he said, noting the Trump administration did terminate a lease for ICE staff at the old post office, 211 19th St. (which is where the former federal courthouse was), and those employees will move to the new courthouse, Thoms said. “Everybody is frustrated.”
Visitors enjoy the QC Farmers’ Market in the newly constructed 1800 block of 2nd Avenue.
The drawn-out construction and opening timetable (three and a half-plus years) for the three-story federal building does not compare favorably to much larger building projects in the QC and across the country. For example:
- The 12,000-seat Vibrant Arena at The MARK, Moline, was built in less than two years, opening in May 1993.
- The 15-story LeClaire Hotel, Moline (today’s LeClaire Apartments), was built in about a year, opening in 1922.
- The original seven-story Hotel Blackhawk, Davenport, was built in a year, opening in 1915.
- The United Center, Chicago, was built in two years and four months, opening in August 1994.
- Soldier Field, Chicago, was built in two years and two months, opening in 1924.
- The Empire State Building (2.2 million square feet), New York City, was built in 14 months, opening in 1931.
- The Chrysler Building (1.2 million square feet), New York City, was built in 16 months, opening in 1930.
- The Pentagon (6.6 million square feet), Washington, D.C., was built in 16 months, opening in 1943.
- The Willis Tower (former Sears Tower, 4.5 million square feet), Chicago, was built in three years and a month, opening in 1973.
Good news for downtown
The hope, for Rock Island city officials and business leaders, is that once the new courthouse opens, it will have a positive spinoff for other downtown businesses.
“They’re all high-paying jobs, which is good,” Thoms said of the government agencies. “One of the key things we need is more people wandering downtown, utilizing restaurants and bars, etc. Some of those people are already there (including IRS staff in the old Star Cres building), so it’s not all like all of them are brand new downtown. Sara’s office, all the judges will be new, they haven’t been down there, will be like new.
“It’s very positive that way, with disposable income,” the former mayor said. “One of the biggest things they looked at, when they acquired the site, was walkable distances to restaurants, that type of stuff. The other positive thing, with the SSA (special service area) downtown, the fee they pay is on top of property taxes, so there will be some new money for the Downtown Alliance.”
New property taxes won’t flow to the city until the building is occupied and open, Thoms said. The city also has a new tax-increment financing (TIF) district, which allows it to collect revenue on redeveloped properties over and above what it previously generated. That goes into a fund, built up over time, that can be used to support other projects only within the TIF district.
“The value of that property was almost zero when they started, so the TIF will give us some new money,” Thoms said. He added a former TIF gave $350,000 for the courthouse property, to cover the cost of the BITCO demolition.
The new TIF is helping support a new project, which is a planned $3.8-million development of the three-story, historic building at 1600 2nd Ave., which was formerly occupied by Sound Conservatory (until fall 2023). The city council in August approved a development agreement with Jeremy Moskowitz (chef at Duck City Bistro, Davenport) and two partners, who have bought the 1901 building and plan to redevelop it for a ground-floor restaurant and upper-floor market-rate apartments.
The United States Courthouse at 320 18th St., Rock Island, has been under construction since March 2022, and is expected to open this October (photo by Jonathan Turner).
The city will provide TIF incentives for that project not to exceed 20 percent or $765,000, whichever is less. Those payments will be made for up to 10 years, and shall begin once the city building official determines the property is in substantial compliance and the apartments get a certificate of occupancy. The agreement calls for the construction to be done by June 2027.
“People are interested in things happening downtown. It’s starting to happen,” Thoms said. “None of it’s going to happen overnight. Nobody moves that fast; some of the building owners have been complacent.”
The planned Rock Island courthouse opening also comes on the heels of the nearly 18-month, $8.7 million downtown reconstruction project, which included street rebuilding and streetscaping of 18th Street from 1st to 3rd avenues, plus 2nd and 3rd avenues from 18th to 19th streets.
The QC Farmers’ Market moved into the newly renovated 1800 block of 2nd Avenue (from Schwiebert Riverfront Park), and has been scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday, May 31-Oct. 25, on the new “festival street” that is closed to vehicle traffic during the market’s hours of operation.
Improvements to the new pedestrian-oriented, event-friendly street include curbless 28-foot-wide sidewalks; pop-up bollards for seamless routine road closures; decorative lighting and landscaping; public art; bench seating; and uniform patio areas for adjacent businesses. Free parking is available in adjacent lots as well as on the street surrounding the market venue, and multiple bike racks are in the general vicinity.
This past weekend, downtown also hosted the annual Rock Island Grand Prix, the world’s largest kart street race. For more information on downtown, click HERE.
An aerial view of the 1901 building at 1600 2nd Ave., Rock Island, when it was formerly occupied by Sound Conservatory (which moved in fall 2023 to downtown Moline).
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