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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Aug 23, 2013 17:21:47 GMT -6
I see that the P&A auto parts store finally sold. It had the $59K sign, then said price reduced and owner financing available. I wonder how little he ended up getting for it.
I keep hearing about more & more people leaving town. Is the 500 vacancy number that someone posted on here correct. It sure seems to make for quite a "buyers" market.
In addition to limiting uses for buildings and creating major hoops for potential businesses to jump through, the City has made it very expensive and troublesome to own a vacant building here.
I've heard of an owner getting away with saying that the desk sitting in his building is an office. Who gets to decide if a building is vacant or not?
I have seen signs of others that seem motivated to dump their buildings too. I am wondering how bad this has been lowering the value of Streator's real estate.
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Post by ImRonBurgundy? on Aug 23, 2013 18:41:29 GMT -6
We have spent the past couple years renovating our house to put it on the market. It is definitely down. My grandpas house appraised for $60,000 and it ended up selling for $26,000. We are waiting it out and hoping that with our renovations that maybe in a couple years we can break even and sell. It does seem like a lot of people are leaving town, but I wouldn't know if that number is correct or not.
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Post by dumdave on Aug 24, 2013 9:26:27 GMT -6
At these prices & w/ the interest rates down so much, this is an excellent time to buy a "Starter House".
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Post by fishman on Aug 24, 2013 9:51:16 GMT -6
About a week ago I was looking at commercial listings for Streator, the P&A building was listed @ $27,000 or $27,500, GREAT price for someone. The drop or stagnation in the housing market ties in with my post "What Ever Happened To". I'm not sure if it's demographics or lack of good candidates or what, the same mind set seems to get re-elected time after time. It also seems that this town's official have been against change or progression for years. I say this after hearing how " The Town" kept out many large companies in the 50's, 60's, and possibly the 70's, while surrounding towns have embraced change...
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Post by dog on Aug 24, 2013 11:06:20 GMT -6
I say this after hearing how " The Town" kept out many large companies in the 50's, 60's, and possibly the 70's, while surrounding towns have embraced change... The towns people also put up a lot of opposition to the numerous attempts by the city officials to attract a prison to Streator. |
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Aug 24, 2013 11:27:02 GMT -6
About a week ago I was looking at local listings for Streator, the P.N.A. building was listed @ $27,000 or $27,500, GREAT price for someone. The drop or stagnation in the housing market ties in with my post "What Ever Happened To". I'm not sure if it's demographics or lack of good candidates or what, the same mind set seems to get re-elected time after time. It also seems that this town's official have been against change or progression for years. I say this after hearing how " The Town" kept out many large companies in the 50's, 60's, and possibly the 70's, while surrounding towns have embraced change... I always find it interesting that the examples of keeping businesses out were 40 to 60 years old. Was it the city that kept them out or other companies that didn't want the competition? Are there any cases of this in the last 10 years? Aquaponics |
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Post by fishman on Aug 24, 2013 11:37:34 GMT -6
I don't think the city has had many businesses interested because we have little to nothing to offer. If I wanted to let's say move my business from a major city out to the boonies as it has been referred to, why would I chose Streator..  ? Let's go for a tour of the industrial park.....I know there would be many red flags go up when I saw the bean or corn field. It shows me a lack of preparedness by the economic development people of this fair city. What has been done for economic development in the last15 years here ? Please someone open my eyes if I missed it. What incentive do I have to chose Streator over some surrounding cities? Promises..... I will give credit were credit is do, Streator does have a very intelligent, reliable, skilled work force. Much of that I think we can attribute to our heritage, I know in my family hard work was and is the norm. It is disheartening when you see things going the opposite way they should be, and you vote your heart out for change in the right direction but it seems as if your people never win.......but we are fighters and don't give up easily, so goes it. |
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Post by dog on Aug 24, 2013 11:42:22 GMT -6
What incentive do I have to chose Streator over some surrounding cities? Promises..... Actually we dont have really anything that we can offer as incentives. The only thing that is tangible is that we are within 20 miles of 3 interstates and we have access to a couple of rail systems. Everything else, ie: tax breaks, utility rate reductions, etc. they can find just about anywhere else. |
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Post by fishman on Aug 24, 2013 11:59:45 GMT -6
dog my point exactly, the surrounding cities that can offer these thing didn't have their heads in the sand and planned for the future with TIF districts and other federal and state programs. Why do our elected officials still have their heads in the sand...? Can't they see what has worked ?? |
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Post by fishman on Aug 24, 2013 12:02:01 GMT -6
sassypants GREAT points why can't we all think this way or along the same lines.......
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Post by dog on Aug 24, 2013 12:10:03 GMT -6
I always find it interesting that the examples of keeping businesses out were 40 to 60 years old. Was it the city that kept them out or other companies that didn't want the competition? Are there any cases of this in the last 10 years? I think just the opposite is true. We have added Walmart. Hopefully TSC will be here soon. We have had Streator Dependable, Results,Cora's, and Vactor expand. EJ McKernon and Luckeys, filled the void at the old Owens warehouses. Mohjitos added a bar and expanded to the south. B&R added a cafe and a 2nd location on OtterCreek St. Oreilly's, Autozone, and Donahue's are recent additions. Aldi's isnt that old. Al's Place. Two or 3 food places opened where yummy house is now. A couple of tattoo places. They all seemed to weather the extreme restrictions this city has placed on businesses. The cities current restrictions arent any more strict than any other town of this size or in this area. I would bet that if the city took a totally hands off approach and let just about any business open where they want and how they want, they MIGHT get a business or two to locate here. I was just reading in the paper a couple of days of the failed railport or ship port in Seneca, The city had spent something like $40,000 to create the TIF district. Developers blamed the failure to a poor economy. Luckily the city is supposed to get reimbursed for that expense. So see, even if you consider a town like Seneca more business friendly, it didnt help them secure more business. Businesses are not coming to Streator, based on our reputation or supposed non-business friendly city government, they are not coming due to the poor economy. |
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Post by dog on Aug 24, 2013 12:21:12 GMT -6
I will give credit were credit is do, Streator does have a very intelligent, reliable, skilled work force. I think for the most part you are correct. But I see more and more and hear prospective employees ask" how many occurences do I get?" Then they proceed to burn those all up in the first couple of weeks, then wonder why they dont have a job. I am not saying that it is just a Streator thing, it seems to be that way all over the area when it concerns the 20 something employees. To get back to your point of Streator workers, I have lived here all my life and know many of the older citizens and I agree that most of them are intelligent, reliable, and skilled, but as they grow older, but many of those qualities are disappearing from our younger workers. With all that being said though, I dont agree that we offer a work force that is head and shoulders above any other city. |
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Aug 24, 2013 13:05:04 GMT -6
What markets do we want here? What will the world need in 5 to 10 years (because this wont be an overnight change, we think to think in the future)? What do the businesses need? How do we do it? How do we pay for that, while maintaining everything else? All those questions need to go into planning for our future. Once those are answered and action taken, then we will have a much better chance of attracting more business as jobs. 2010 was when I began asking our council for an economic development plan and more City resources put behind bringing livable wage jobs here. They have said that what they have been doing has been working just fine, so Streator keeps heading in the same direction. If you like the direction that our City has been heading go ahead and keep supporting them. I really think that our only hope of any change here is to get more progressive thinking leadership at City Hall. |
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Post by Kyle Mitchell on Aug 24, 2013 13:35:06 GMT -6
I really don't think you been in every meeting and conversation that I have had with our City leaders since 2010.
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Post by dog on Aug 24, 2013 13:54:48 GMT -6
dog my point exactly, the surrounding cities that can offer these thing didn't have their heads in the sand and planned for the future with TIF districts and other federal and state programs. Why do our elected officials still have their heads in the sand...? Can't they see what has worked ?? We do have TIF's and enterprise zones. What programs specifically is the city missing? |
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? Let's go for a tour of the industrial park.....I know there would be many red flags go up when I saw the bean or corn field. It shows me a lack of preparedness by the economic development people of this fair city. What has been done for economic development in the last15 years here ? Please someone open my eyes if I missed it. What incentive do I have to chose Streator over some surrounding cities? Promises.....