Caterpillar Increases Commitment
Caterpillar has increased its support for the Build The Block campaign another $2.5 million, bringing its commitment to the Peoria Riverfront Museum to $13.5 million and its total pledged investment in The Block to $56 million.
Three years ago Caterpillar announced a pledge of $2.5 million for an employee (and retiree) match. “I’m proud to say members of Team Caterpillar have stepped up. We’ve met the $2.5 million commitment already with pledges,” said Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Owens. “We’re going to increase that another $2.5 million,” he revealed to applause from a crowd of more than 200 gathered at the Sept. 2, 2008, official launch of the Build The Block campaign.
Owens underscored his support for the total project. “We need this kind of vision,” he said, calling The Block “a real centerpiece for our headquarters city” and just what is needed “to attract people from all over the world to live and work here.”
The morning event for the public and press was held on the Water Street patio of Martini’s, overlooking The Block’s seven-acre site. The area’s surrounding fence, emblazoned with freshly painted bold graphics, heralded the planned elements of the $136 million development comprised of the Riverfront Museum and the Caterpillar Experience on a park-like campus.
Owens emphasized the Caterpillar Experience goes “hand in glove” with the museum investment. “We’re doing everything we can to support it. This is a Peoria block, and the Peoria community really needs to get behind it. I’m proud to see the collective efforts and the bipartisan efforts here today to do just that.”
In addition to the $5 million in employee and retiree pledge matches, Caterpillar has committed $7 million outright for the museum and $1.5 million in non-employee matches. Its own Caterpillar Experience, creatively showcasing the Fortune 50 company’s past, present and future, also would be fully funded by Caterpillar at an estimated cost of $41 million.
Caterpillar joins the CEO Roundtable, Museum Collaboration Group and West Central Illinois Building Trades Council in supporting the Build The Block campaign. The CEO Roundtable, a group of 37 community and business leaders, is spearheading the push to raise $8 million in private donations for the Riverfront Museum through pledges by local businesses and individuals.
The planned museum will feature art, science and history exhibits for all ages, an IHSA Peak Performance Center, state-of-the-art planetarium and 3-D IMAX theatre.
Brad McMillan, co-chairperson of the Museum Collaboration Group, called Owens a “true champion of this unique project.” McMillan went on to explain, “There is no combined corporate/public project like it anywhere else in the country.”
Owens also addressed the museum’s future. “I know a lot of people in Peoria are concerned that we not only build a great museum and a cultural centerpiece for our community, but we have something that’s sustainable,” he said. “So our additional $2.5 million in employee and retiree matching funds will go into an endowment fund which will ensure the viability of the business plan for the museum operations.”
Also at the event, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis put Caterpillar’s contribution in context. “We cannot underestimate the significance of the Caterpillar Experience and Cat’s world headquarters location right here in Peoria. You don’t see the corporate headquarters of global companies like Caterpillar locating in cities our size,” he said as he thanked Caterpillar for its “gift to our city.”