Sprawling site attracts prominent design team

Architects whose resumes are filled with skyscrapers in downtown Chicago, prominent buildings around the world and projects the likes of Canary Wharf in London did not pass up the chance to work on the banks of the Mississippi River.

From the moment the lineup of architects laid their eyes on the more that 130 acres of riverfront, they were attracted to redeveloping it. As demolition begins on the site, owned by River Eagle Investments LLC, the architects already have been busy designing buildings and elaborate landscaping to transform the former Case New Holland plant site into Fountainhead Quad-Cities.

Keeping its pledge the development would be a local project, River Eagle hired Russell Construction and McClure Engineering, both based in the Quad-Cities. Russell is the construction manager.

The scope of the project, the site and the chance to transform a rare sizable parcel along the Mississippi has created an excitement among those involved.

"We're actually creating a whole village, a little city on the site," said Chicago architect Jim DeStefano, who first saw the site three years ago. He is the project's master planner.

"I'm still amazed when you look at the plans; it looks like little parcels,'' he said after the project's first pre-construction design meeting last month in Davenport. "You get out there and it is just vast."

Tom Fennelly, Russell's senior vice president, said the project compareswith nothing else "that has been done or is being done."

"Usually, a project has many small phases. This one is coming out with a large phase at the beginning. It's more exciting and shows the commitment of the developer."

Fennelly said the original plan was for the two hotels and one apartment building in phase one, but the three planned apartment buildings now are part of the initial phase.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a multi-building, multi-phase project that is going to be significant to the community," he said. "Early on, we had our doubts whether this would come to fruition. Now we see it is and we're extremely excited to be part of it."

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Sprawling site attracts prominent design team