The Dixon City Council has approved two redevelopment agreements that will grow the I-88 business corridor: one that will provide dental services and another that will bring in a string of new businesses to the Gateway project area.

Dixon Dental Real Estate, LLC, will develop a lot next to Tru by Hilton at the corner of Bloody Gulch Road and South Galena Avenue. That land will become the site of a multi-tenant building offering specialty and pediatric dental services at Exceptional Dentistry and Rock River Endodontics. It’ll also have a Benjamin Nagy Country Financial Insurance office, according to the agreement.

The City Council approved that agreement Sept. 15 as well as another one for a redevelopment project that includes a 9,000-square-foot multi-tenant building housing an OSF OnCall urgent care office and a Tropical Smoothie Cafe along with other businesses that have yet to be announced. It will be located at the intersection of Keul Road and South Galena Avenue in Dixon, according to the agreement.

The project with Dixon Dental Real Estate, LLC, “is really cool in the sense that we’re working with a couple of local business owners,” Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss said.

Exceptional Dentistry is currently located at 724 N. Brinton Ave. in Dixon. The business will be moving out of that location and another dentist office will move in, Langloss said.

The expansion of dental services and professionals, especially pediatric care, “is really, really important, and we’re excited,” Langloss said. “We need more dentists. Anybody who lives in town knows that it can take a while to get into the dentist.”

The entire building will be about 12,000 square feet and have 1,500 square feet of unfinished commercial space that’ll be marketed and rented to other retail or food businesses. The developers are investing about $2.75 million in the project, according to the agreement.

“This isn’t going to look like a strip mall building. The way that I would describe it is it looks more like a medical clinic building,” City Attorney Rob LeSage said.

When meeting with the developers “that was one of the things that we found kind of striking, was what an asset that it would be. As people come off of [Interstate] 88 from the east, that will be the building that they see from the off ramp. It’s a good, kind of a unique presentation into Dixon, which is exciting.”

Langloss said the developers plan to break ground on the project by the end of 2025.

The project on the other side of South Galena Avenue at the Keul Road intersection is the latest to be announced in Dixon’s 3-year-old Gateway project – a 27-acre commercial development site near Interstate 88.

The city expects the entire Gateway project – which includes Lee County Industrial Development Association, X-Site Real Estate and Walsh Partners as developers – to create more than 600 jobs and $1 million a year in new tax revenue once it’s completed.

So far it’s opened a Chipotle, Jersey Mike’s, Casey’s gas station, T-Mobile, Wynn Nail Spa, a cannabis dispensary, a child care center operated by the Dixon Family YMCA and Water Castle Car Wash. A Fairfield Inn by Marriott and a McDonald’s are on the way as well.

“It’s just phenomenal. The work that they have done in our community. They saw an opportunity. They believed in Dixon,” Langloss said. “On a 27-acre parcel. There’s only going to be a couple lots left and it’s just impressive.”

The agreements for both projects that the council approved relate to benefits the developers will receive by being located within the Fargo Creek TIF district.

A TIF district is an economic development tool that allows municipalities to set aside revenue created by the additional property tax generated by new property value in the district’s boundaries. That revenue can be used to fund things like agreements with developers that entice them to build in the area.

“TIFs are a powerful economic growth provider for municipalities. ... It provides incentives on behalf of the city without having an impact on the taxpayers,” Langloss said in a previous interview.

For the project expanding dental services, the city agreed to reimburse the developers 50% of the additional property tax revenue generated by the project for 10 years. As for the project within Gateway, the city agreed to reimburse developers 50% for 6 years, according to the agreements.