2013 was a year of planning in the Quad Cities. That planning that will develop into jobs in 2014.
The blockbuster deal of 2013 was the $110 million land-based casino agreement. The deal was finalized the city approved the Isle of Capri to sell the Rhythm City Casino to developer Dan Kehl. It sold for $51 million.
Kehl will close the riverboat casino and open a new casino and hotel near Interstate Highway 80. According to Davenport's Mayor Bill Gluba, groundbreaking should begin in the fall of 2014.
Just weeks after the casino agreement, the Davenport City Council voted to restore the City Square block in downtown Davenport. The $60 million project will include revamping the Putnam and and Parker buildings.
The nearly abandon buildings will offer hotel rooms, apartments, a sky bar, grocery and pharmacy, and class A office space.
A few miles down the road, Elmore Avenue has been getting a facelift.
Over a dozen new businesses will be calling the new strip mall home.
Across the bridge in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln has been making it's own developments.
Western Illinois University of Moline introduced phase II of their new Riverfront campus. The project adds space for programs in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education and Human services, and Fine Arts and Communications.
The project is expected to be finished in the Summer/Fall of 2014.
Moline will also be adding a train station/hotel. The Moline City Council voted to approve an agreement with developers The Amin Group in September of 2013. The hotel is expected to open in late December 2014. Trains will not be making their way through Moline until 2015.
And as 2013 comes to end, projects in the Quad Cities are just beginning.