Rockford Area Arts Council to host public meeting on Armory plans

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD —  The Rockford Area Arts Council will host a public meeting this week to take feedback on its plan to purchase the former Illinois National Guard Armory and convert it to a cultural civic center.

The meeting is slated for noon Wednesday at the Nordlof Center, 118 N. Main St. in downtown.

Related: Rockford Area Arts Council makes bid to buy former Armory for civic center, artist lofts

The Arts Council has put in a $1,000 bid to purchase the former armory from the city of Rockford, which has owned the property since October 2006 and was looking for a buyer to redevelop the nearly 90-year-old building at 605 N. Main St.

The long-range goal is to make it a cultural civic center for a variety of performances and other uses, while also creating at least 26 studio apartments for artists.

The first two years after buying the property would be centered around asbestos abatement and other environmental cleanup funded with the help of state and federal Environmental Protection Agency grants the council is pursuing.

The public meeting is a requirement of the grant process.

If the Arts Council is not awarded grant money to clean the property, the building will return to ownership of the city, according to terms of a tentative purchase agreement.

City Council members could approve that deal tonight.

It promises to be a multiyear process to complete environmental cleanup before any redevelopment work moves forward.

The Arts Council plans to work with development partners Urban Equity Properties and Gorman and Co. to redevelop the 57,000-square-foot building.

The armory was built in 1936 by Sjostrom & Sons and designed by Bradley & Bradley Architects.

It was the home of the Illinois National Guard until 1993, when it moved to North Second Street in Machesney Park.

After the National Guard’s departure, the building was used as OIC Vocational Institute from 1996-1999. But the property fell into disrepair after the group ceased operations and other plans for the site never materialized. The city took ownership after it had sat vacant for seven years.

Timeline

Here’s the timeline the Arts Council expects:

• Nov. 4: City Council purchase agreement
• Nov. 14: Deadline for grant application
• May 2025: Grant award notice
• May-December 2025: Finalize federal grant paperwork and capital stack development
• Early 2026: Put out bid for environmental mitigation work
• Late 2026: Complete environmental cleanup
• Early 2027 options: Complete a development agreement with financial support from the city and county or revert ownership back to the city

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas