Peoria City Council decides to buy Expo Gardens

PEORIA (25News Now) - Peoria’s City Council officially approved buying Expo Gardens at Tuesday’s meeting with the hope that it will someday develop into single family housing.

In a 9-2 vote, the city council approved the purchase of nearly 70 acres that make up the property for $1.25 million, using post-employment benefit funds. The state has marked funds for Peoria’s land bank in the newly signed budget, which will reimburse the post-employment benefit funds.

The city will officially own the property around the second week of July.

District 5 Council member Denis Cyr led a failed effort to defer the sale until a formal appraisal was done, but other members didn’t want to miss the opportunity to buy it.

If the city had decided not to purchase the property, it would have faced bank foreclosure.

It appears the Heart of Illinois Fair will still happen at Expo Gardens this year, but the city plans to redevelop the area into residential properties. The fair’s fate is unclear after that.

Many around the horseshoe spoke positively about having more single-family homes near schools.

“I couldn’t be more excited about a project like this, that allows us to grow our tax base and support our education system. Opportunities like this don’t come every day,” said Mayor Rita Ali.

Cyr and District 2 representative Alex Carmona voted against the sale. Cyr opposed it because there had been no property appraisal. City manager Patrick Urich said the price per acre is relatively low.

Carmona questioned whether the government should decide what happens to the property.

“At the end of the day, government intervention in the private sector is typically not a good idea, and we have plenty of examples of it not working,” Carmona said.

Through September of 2026, the current Expo Gardens team will lease the property. After that, they will continue the lease on a month-to-month basis. This will allow events already planned on the property to go forward.

The next step is for Peoria to look for a developer to put single-family homes on the property, a process expected to take several months.

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