Civic Center Brings Crowds to Greater Peoria

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One of the biggest catalysts for growth in downtown Peoria, Illinois, is the Peoria Civic Center, where more than 500,000 people attend its events each year. The spacious facility, which opened in 1982, features an arena, a theater, a ballroom and a convention center. In 2024, it hosted events like Bradley University basketball games, a Bob Seger concert, a Chelsea Handler comedy show, the Peoria Comic & Toy Show, and a slew of Broadway productions.

The center is so popular that Pollstar magazine recognized the arena and theater as being among the top 100 venues in the U.S. for ticket sales during the first half of 2024.

“About 50% of our ticket sales for entertainment events are actually from patrons who live more than 50 miles from Peoria, making the Civic Center a key economic driver for bringing tourism into this market,” says Rik Edgar, Peoria Civic Center general manager.

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Connected to the building is the Marriott Pere Marquette hotel, where many visitors attending a show or sporting event at the Civic Center often stay overnight. Edgar adds that the center has gone through a recent $47 million renovation project to improve the 43-year-old building.

“A key upgrade was replacing all the carpeting throughout the entire venue,” he says. “The old carpeting was about 20 years old, and we somehow figured that it was walked on more than 50 million times.”