MOLINE - The agenda item on the Committee of the Whole meeting for a new development at 4100 10th Street was taken off the agenda at the last-minute Tuesday night.
The agenda item calls on DP Moline, LLC to develop the property at the old Menards building in Moline. Planning and Development Director Ray Forsythe told us Tuesday that Hobby Lobby has already applied to put in a new store there.
"It's definitely a desirable place to be with the traffic on John Deere Road with the Kohls, the Target, and the Hy-Vee," Forsythe said. "We're losing potential retail stores just because we don't have the same opportunities here, so it's exciting."
Besides Hobby Lobby, the company is looking to put in three other retail stores. Those have not been named yet. Nonetheless, many Illinois shoppers seem excited about a Hobby Lobby coming to Moline.
"I love Hobby Lobby," Rock Island resident Frank Youngquist said. "I'll be down here all the time because it'd be closer."
Youngquist is referring to the only other Hobby Lobby in the Quad Cities, the one on Kimberly Road in Bettendorf. Forsythe touched on why a Hobby Lobby is important to the Illinois side of the Quad Cities.
"They're destination stores that people go across the bridge to Davenport and Bettendorf for," he said.
The city's Committee of the Whole agenda said the fiscal impact would be positive because it would "increase property, sales, and utility taxes." The Moline City Council is expected to approve the agenda item, but it's still not been looked at in the Committee of the Whole meeting.
"A lot of people make a special trip over there to Iowa," Moline shopper Keri DeCock said. "It'd just be more convenient."
Also, the building is expected to be completely remodeled. The Committee of the Whole agenda said the project would consist of "a new façade, interior redevelopment and building expansion."
"It'll really look like a new development just because of the investment they're making," Forsythe said.
Forsythe does plan on announcing the other three companies who want to move there in the next couple of weeks. The new Hobby Lobby is not expected to be open until early in 2013.