Peoria-born business gets ready to move next to its customers on the Rock Island Trail

The Bushwhacker building is just north of Peoria’s Rock Island Greenway overpass and expected to open spring 2015.

The steel for the Bushwhacker building, under construction north of the year-old Rock Island Greenway overpass, is in place, just a few months after the Peoria Planning and Zoning Commission gave the project its ok.

“Peoria’s Original Outdoor Store. Since 1971” first opened on Main Street, then moved a few miles north to the Metro Centre. The new Junction City building is another two miles to the northeast by road and the first structure in Peoria designed with Rock Island Greenway users in mind.

That includes people in Peoria Heights, the walkable next-door community that was home to Vitesse Cycle, the previous Trek dealer, until sold by its Normal, Illinois, owner to the manager, moved to North Hale Avenue off Pioneer Parkway–another of Peoria’s remarkably inhuman thoroughfares–and quickly left to oblivion’s tender mercies.

Bushwhacker, on the other hand, has experienced management, a broader product line and a prime location on its side. The stand-alone building will likely replace Vonachen’s Old Place, a restaurant closed in 2008 and later demolished, as Junction City’s focal point–in effect, turning the public face of the shopping center 180 degrees.

In addition to skis, kayaks, camping gear and technical clothing, Bushwhacker’s offerings include Trek, Giant, Cervélo and Surly bicycles.

And to think it’s right on my commuting route.