The desire of a Peoria businessman and his wife to live out their Christian faith by helping a central Illinois community in need led to their recent purchase of the shuttered Lincoln College campus for a job-creating lease program.
“We want life back on that campus,” John Wieland told Illinois Times in describing the $1 lease program for nonprofits and for-profit businesses that will offer space on the more than 50-acre campus in the heart of Lincoln.
John Wieland, 68, the owner and chief executive officer of Peoria-based MH Equipment, which sells and rents materials handling equipment and operates at 40 locations in 12 states, said he and his wife, Julie, 67, bought the campus for $2.6 million for the program.
He said their decision followed an ultimately unsuccessful effort by officials associated with the 157-year-old nonprofit private college to attract another higher education institution to occupy the space. If that scenario had worked out, John Wieland said he and his wife still would have bought the land, which includes about 25 buildings covering a total of 426,000 square feet, and then donated the campus to the new occupant.
Neither John Wieland, who earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Western Illinois University in 1980, nor his wife has any direct connection to Lincoln College. The couple live in rural Peoria County near Kickapoo.
John Wieland said he did commute to Lincoln every day when he worked as the chief financial officer for Lincoln Office in the year before the company moved its headquarters to Peoria in 1990.
Wieland, who grew up in Jerseyville, said he began thinking about ways of helping Lincoln College when talking with some central Illinois friends after the 630-student college closed in 2022.
The shuttering of the predominantly Black institution in a predominantly white community was blamed on financial turmoil connected with the COVID-19 pandemic and a ransomware attack in December 2021.
Hard times in Lincoln – and the loss of hundreds of jobs – also included the 2024 closure of 79-year-old Lincoln Christian University, the 2019 closure of the Ardagh Group’s glass container production plant and the 2002 closure of Lincoln Developmental Center.
Those losses in Lincoln, a city of 13,000 people and the Logan County seat, don’t include the expected exit in the next five years of Logan Correctional Center, an all-women prison employing 400 people that the state plans to rebuild in one of Chicago’s south suburbs.
John Wieland said he and his wife, both members of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, wanted to use their finances the way their faith leads them to help others. “Jesus did say it’s more blessed to give than to receive,” he said.
The new campus owner’s generosity “is something you dream of” in promoting economic development, according to Uriah Kilgallin, CEO of nonprofit Lincoln Economic Advancement & Development (LEAD).
“That type of benevolence is uncommon,” he said. “This is an incredible opportunity for organizations to grow in a community that has so much to offer.”
LEAD, which is similar to the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance in Springfield, will act as administrator of the lease program, Kilgallin said.
He described the venture as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for applicants. Nonprofits seeking to expand and grow in Lincoln can lease space on the campus for $1 per year, and for-profit businesses can apply for similar $1 leases.
Nonprofits that meet agreed-upon “growth metrics” will have the option to eventually acquire property at no cost, while for-profit businesses, in similar fashion, will be able to purchase property at rates expected to be $40 to $50 per square foot.
Proposals for space in five of the buildings will be considered first, with the application deadline for the first round set for Oct. 30. Space in more buildings will be available in future rounds.
Kilgallin said he hopes employers can begin moving into the campus sometime in 2027.
“We’ve received quite a bit of interest,” he told Illinois Times on Sept. 17, a few days after the program was announced.
Interested organizations can review the application and supporting materials at leadlincoln.com. A walkthrough of the buildings with space available in the first round of applications will take place at 1 p.m. Sept. 29 on campus at 300 Keokuk St., Lincoln.
Kilgallin said the application process is designed to ensure that organizations wanting some of the low-cost space will bring “new to Lincoln” jobs and are not just trying to reduce their overhead expenses.
“We’re excited to help connect the right organizations with this opportunity and just as excited to introduce them to everything that makes Lincoln such a special place to grow,” he said.
Kilgallin said the campus property is zoned residential, which means rezoning likely will be needed before employers can move in. But he said city officials have indicated they are willing to consider rezoning proposals so the program can succeed.
John Wieland said he and his wife hope to sell off or transfer ownership of all of the campus in the next five years. “This is definitely not a harebrained idea to make money,” he said.
Weiland said the couple came up with the name for the limited liability corporation that purchased the campus to signify their long-term goal. The LLC is EZ 37:4-5, which refers to a section in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. In the passage, God commands Ezekiel, a prophet, to command a valley of dry bones to hear the word of the Lord and come back to life.
“We want to breathe life into those dead bones,” Wieland said. “We’d like jobs, and we’d like good jobs, to come to Lincoln. All me and my wife want to see when we go by there is to see a whole bunch of cars there all over the place.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.
My ancestors were busy farming, smithing, and doing carpentry. Not sure what they have to do with some riot over 100 years ago.