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Rock Island helps bring Bridges Catering to city with $600,000 investment

It’s a business boost in Rock Island. City council members approve a $600,000 investment for Bridges Catering to buy the Stern Center. SEE ALSO: Bridges C...

It's a business boost in Rock Island. City council members approve a $600,000 investment for Bridges Catering to buy the Stern Center.

SEE ALSO: Bridges Catering may get $600,000 to redevelop Stern Center

Bridges, which is based in Princeton, Iowa, has been looking to move into the Quad Cities area and had offers from a hand full of other cities besides Rock Island.

Bill Healy's original plan to buy the Hauberg House didn't work out, but that didn't knock Rock Island off their radar.

"We went back to the drawing board. We looked at what worked, what didn't work, where can we go and evaluated what all of our options were," Healy said.

That's when they approached the Stern family about buying their building. The $1.3 million agreement comes with $600,000 from the city's Downtown TIF fund. It's money the City already has set aside for downtown development, and they expect to get that money back quickly.

"It'll be $70,000 plus in sales tax a year, so it's a good deal," Rock Island Mayor Dennis Pauley said.

"It wasn't really a give and take, we just really helped each other. They see the value that our business brings with sales tax dollars and over 100 jobs and a business that isn't going anywhere," Healy said.

The money listed in the re-development agreement to bring Bridges Catering to the Stern Center is nothing in comparison to what the City thinks they'll get for bringing a family business back home.

Three generations of the Healy family have grown up in Rock Island, and even though they had offers from other cities, it was a love for home that sealed the deal.

"Truly, if we're going to have a business, we want to support the city," Healy said.

"They stayed with us, they worked with us, and we're doing anything that we can for them and they're doing what they can for us. It's a great deal," Mayor Pauley said.

The ink is barely dry on the agreement, and everyone involved already sees a bright future.

The deal is set in a way that could protect the City if things go wrong. Bridges Catering will get $300,000 now, and the last $300,000 once they've added a working kitchen, offices and given the west side of the building a new coat of paint.

Even though there isn't a firm deadline on when Bridges Catering will move into the Stern Center, they want to start the remodeling work as soon as possible to get the business up and running.

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