02-04-2025
California company buys Spurck mansion; plans for 130-year-old building unknown
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — A historic building just north of Downtown Peoria has been sold — albeit for a loss — to a California-based company.
According to records at the Peoria County Recorder of Deeds' office, the 130-year-old building near the intersection of Interstate 74 and Knoxville Avenue was sold two weeks ago for $99,000 to Tres Poderes, LLC, a company based in Sacramento.
The seller? Kim Blickenstaff's KDB Group.
A call to the company as well as their Peoria-based attorney was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Looking Back: KDB Group pulls out of all Peoria-area projects
It wasn't known, and the recorder documents don't discuss what plans are in store for the old mansion, which suffered a fire about six years ago.
For years, the mansion, which was built in 1893 by Peter E. Spurck, was home to the Junior League of Peoria's Family House, which offered help to families who needed help with medical issues.
'This historic mansion, beginning its new mission, opened its doors to its first guest families on June 5, 1985. Just as the original owner Peter Spurck first paved the streets of Peoria, Family House paved the way of kindness and hope for families who need relief from the emotional and financial stress brought on by medical problems,' according to the group's website.
Then, it was sold for $140,000 to Christopher Petruzzi who used the building for a nondenominational Christian home. He then sold it to the KDB Group in 2020 after a fire ravaged the building in 2019, for $130,000, according to Peoria County property tax records.
KDB was the real estate firm for Kim Blickenstaff, who brought the mansion and several other buildings in the area with promises to rehab them and restore them to their former glory or more.
Blickenstaff appeared to be the savior of the building, which was on the verge of being demolished due to the fire.
However, two years ago and without warning, he put all his parcels on the market and since then, they have been selling off one by one. Some had been finished and restored. Others were left largely untouched.
The building appears to be just within the East Village Growth Cell tax-increment financing district. So it's possible revenue from that TIF fund could help with any development of the property.
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