May 01, 2024
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Gateway Project to break ground Thursday in Dixon

Development to include hotel, gas station, restaurants

By Rachel Rodgers
The Gateway Project a major development on 27 acres along South Galena Avenue across from Walmart between Keul and Bloody Gulch roads in Dixon, will bring up to a dozen buildings, including a hotel, restaurant and retail space, Infrastructure work could begin as early as spring 2021. Of the $2.7 million in state infrastructure grants totaling around $2.7 million the city has won, $1 million will be put to this project, the rest to road repairs.

The Gateway Project a major development on 27 acres along South Galena Avenue across from Walmart between Keul and Bloody Gulch roads in Dixon, will bring up to a dozen buildings, including a hotel, restaurant and retail space.

DIXON — Developers will break ground Thursday on the Gateway Project that’s expected to bring a new hotel, gas station, restaurants and shops to the Interstate 88 corridor.

The Gateway Project is a major development on 27 acres along South Galena Avenue across from Walmart between Keul and Bloody Gulch roads with plans to include the construction of a dozen buildings.

The project is expected to create more than 600 jobs and $1 million a year in new tax revenue.

It’s being developed by Xsite Real Estate of Burr Ridge and Walsh Partners of Elmhurst. Xsite is the developer of Presidential Parkway Plaza, the four-building project north of Walmart along the south side of Keul Road.

The city and the Lee County Industrial Development Association are also partners in the project.

The city has long sought after opportunities to open up further development in the I-88 corridor.

“It has been many, many years in the making and will have a huge positive impact on our ability to draw travelers off I-88,” Mayor Li Arellano Jr. said.

The Gateway project, a partnership with the city, LCIDA, also is expected to create more than 600 jobs and create $1 million a year in new tax revenue.

The Gateway project, a partnership with the city, LCIDA, also is expected to create more than 600 jobs and create $1 million a year in new tax revenue.

In October, the City Council approved annexation agreements across 657 acres - including land for the Gateway Project - after years of working with landowners and developers to open up new opportunities in South Dixon.

The project will also fall into one of the two new tax increment financing districts the city recently established. Gateway will be in the Fargo Creek TIF, which has boundaries roughly covering First Street to the north, Peoria and Chicago avenues to the east, I-88 to the south, and Depot Avenue and Pump Factory Road to the west. The other is the Industrial Park TIF south of I-88, between South Galena Avenue and U.S. Route 52.

The city will begin infrastructure work to accommodate the project this summer. In 2020, the city won a $1 million from the Opportunity Zone grant program for the work.

Dixon Land Group LLC, representing the Gateway Project, purchased the land in the project footprint for around $2 million last month, according to property records.

The groundbreaking will take place 3 p.m. Thursday at the site.

DixonDixon City CouncilLee CountySauk ValleyEconomic Development
Rachel Rodgers

Rachel Rodgers

Rachel Rodgers joined Sauk Valley Media in 2016 covering local government in Dixon and Lee County.