We are just weeks away from the opening of The Q in downtown Moline.
The $37 million project is about seven years in the making and is getting ready to open to the public in January 2018, along with the Element Hotel. Here's a sneak peek at both.
The Q is a multi-modal station and is a renovation of the old Sears warehouse, plus an addition.
During our interview with Ray Forsythe, Moline's Planning and Development Director, on Good Morning Quad Cities on Thursday, December 14th, we stood in what's called the Grand Hall of The Q. It's built off the warehouse and one of the walls is the exterior wall of that old building. That wall also includes doorways and windows that look like the warehouse's old loading docks and Forsythe says there's a reason for that:
"This had to get approved by the [Illinois] Historic Preservation Society and then it went onto the National Parks Service for their approval, so there’s historic tax credits the developer is getting for this," he explained. "We had to follow the 106 Process, because we used federal money in a historic building so this building is on the National Register, which is a blessing and a curse, so part of the challenge we’ve had on this project is it’s a Brownfield, it has asbestos and lead paint, it’s in the flood plain, it’s on the National Register, so we had to deal with all these federal entities and state entities to get this to the point it is today."
Forsythe added that every little detail - down to the color of the grout in the brick - had to be approved on a state and federal level, which caused the project to get a little behind schedule.
The Q is going to be the only place you'll be able to get onto a passenger rail train to and from Chicago. For an update on that project, click here.
