Peoria’s three dropped 2018 Opportunity Zones are still eligible

PEORIA, Ill. — Only two of Peoria County’s five 2018 Opportunity Zones carry over to the 2027 map, and the three that do not are still eligible on Treasury’s own data. Tracts 3, 21 and 50, with poverty rates of 46.9, 27.8 and 31.8 percent, are not designated. Neither is Pekin’s 2018 zone in Tazewell County, tract 211.01, at 25.4 percent. Peoria County has seven designated 2027 tracts, all Non-Rural, and five of them have new GEOIDs; Tazewell County has two. Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census internal-point analysis places seven of the nine in Peoria, one in Creve Coeur and one in Pekin, the same split 25News reported on November 11. That report did not compare the 2027 list with the 2018 one.

Lead photo: the Peoria County Courthouse and the veterans memorial on Courthouse Plaza in Peoria, photographed in August 2019. City-context photograph; it does not show a designated tract. Credit: Pgjgreen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped and resized.

Peoria County, five 2018 zones and seven 2027 zones:

Tazewell County, one 2018 zone and two 2027 zones:

Treasury treats a tract as an eligible low-income community if its poverty rate is at least 20 percent and its income ratio is no more than 125 percent, or if the income ratio is 70 percent or less. By that test Peoria County has 21 eligible tracts and seven designated ones, and Tazewell County has three eligible and two designated. Illinois has 957 eligible tracts and 240 designated ones, 78 of them Rural. Five of the nine designated Peoria-area tracts qualify only on the income test, because their poverty rates are under 20 percent: tracts 2, 15 and 22 in Peoria County and tracts 204 and 209 in Tazewell County. The governor’s November 5 release said the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) “received and reviewed more than 500 tract nominations.”

The 2018 list uses 2010 census tracts and the 2027 list uses 2020 tracts, so a matching number does not always mean a matching footprint. In Opportunity Zone Invest’s analysis of the Census Bureau’s 2010-to-2020 tract relationship file, each of the four tracts not on the 2027 list maps almost entirely to the 2020 tract with the same number, and so do the two carry-overs, tracts 9 and 12. The five new Peoria County tracts do not overlap any 2018 zone. The tracts that are off the list are not renumbered; they are not on it.

25News reported that nine Greater Peoria tracts were designated, seven in the city of Peoria and one each in Creve Coeur and Pekin, citing the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council. CEO Chris Setti told the station, “The goal of the program is to drive private capital into low-income areas.” He also said, “There is a series of tax benefits to the investor if they deploy private capital into projects that are in low-income census tracts,” and, “What's nice about this one is that it doesn't cost local taxpayers or local communities anything.” Setti named downtown, the Warehouse District and parts of the riverfront as places that could benefit. This story does not place any of those areas in a tract; that takes an address-level check.

DCEO Director Kristin Richards said in the governor’s release, “Through a data-driven evaluation and extensive statewide engagement, we identified 240 census tracts with potential to attract new investment, support business growth, expand economic opportunity, and strengthen local economies.” The release does not discuss individual Peoria-area tracts.

New 2027 investments in the Peoria area have to be in one of the nine designated tracts, and only if they otherwise qualify. Owners of property in tracts 3, 21 and 50, or in Pekin’s tract 211.01, should not assume 2027 status; those four are eligible but not designated. Five of the seven Peoria County tracts are new to the program, so a parcel’s 2018 status does not predict its 2027 status. Confirm a parcel’s tract with the census tract lookup or on the map, and see the Peoria County and Tazewell County zone lists. A tract can straddle city limits; Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census internal-point analysis places the tracts in the cities named above, but it does not mean every parcel in a tract is inside a city’s limits.

The designations take effect in January 2027, under Treasury’s November 5 announcement and DCEO’s release. The next test is whether local leaders, developers or investors name projects in the nine tracts. A designation does not pay for, permit or build anything on its own.

Related. Peoria County Opportunity Zones · Tazewell County Opportunity Zones · Peoria County tract list · Illinois Opportunity Zones · Designated-tract final list · Designated-tract map · Census tract lookup · Opportunity Zone extension guide · Treasury designates all 6,576 Opportunity Zone 2.0 tracts on its final list

Reporting note: Poverty rates and income ratios were read from Treasury’s September 23, 2026 eligibility file, which uses ACS 2020–2024 data, and rounded to one decimal place. Designated and 2018 tract counts were counted from the CDFI Fund final workbook and the December 14, 2018 CDFI designated-QOZ list. City assignments and the 2010-to-2020 tract comparison are Opportunity Zone Invest’s Census analysis, not a statement that any tract lies entirely inside a city’s limits. Quotes are from 25News’s November 11 report and the governor’s November 5 release. No outreach and no independently conducted interviews. Educational reporting, not tax, legal or investment advice.