Macomb city council members continue to discuss the idea of building an indoor sports complex in the city.
Members of the council’s community development committee last week voted unanimously in support of the project.
During this week’s city council committee of the whole meeting, CDC member John Vigezzi said they need to find a way to bring people to Macomb because the city is not growing and enrollment has been on the decline at Western Illinois University.
“This is an excellent opportunity. Yes, there is a bit of money that goes behind this, but it’s an excellent opportunity for us to drive business into Macomb,” he said.
Vigezzi also pointed out the city can stop the project at any point before construction starts.
CDC member Dave Dorsett called the sports complex a big project, and an expensive one. He said the decision is keeping him up at night.
But Dorsett believes building the complex is the right thing to do.
“We are in a completely different dynamic these days. We can no longer keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. We’ve got to find a new method,” he said.
Dorsett called the project a well-thought out plan.
The city intends to create a business development district to pay for the project. The sports complex would have to be located within that district. An additional sales tax of up to one-percent would be levied within the district.
Dorsett said the city should create the district even if it decides against building the sports complex.
“We have a lot of needs, and this is another mechanism, another tool in the toolbox, that we can rely on, we can help to lure other businesses,” Dorsett said.
Elsewhere in the region, Galesburg, Quincy, and Canton already have business development districts in place.
Mayor Mike Inman said Macomb does not have home rule authority, so the business district is one of the few options the city has to generate extra revenue.
Inman said Macomb relies largely on sales taxes to fund city operations.
“In order for us to draw and recruit retail sales and the things that come with it, we need to have a population base, even if that population base is here for only a transient amount of time for about 30 weekends a year,” he said.
Like Vigezzi, Inman said nothing is set in stone.
“I can’t stress enough, this is still a proposed facility,” he said.
The mayor said the city has done a significant amount of due diligence so far, and that will continue up until it is time to sign a contract.
Inman said if the city council agrees to move ahead with the sports complex, the city will plan to bring a contracting firm on board by June.
He said the business development district will need to be established by October so that the city can start collecting the revenue in January 2026.
And if everything falls into place, Inman says the first games could be played in the indoor sports complex in the fall of 2027.
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