PEORIA — Hours after one of the original commercial anchors of Riverfront Village closed its doors for good, the city and a consortium of investors announced tentative plans to transform the elevated concrete platform into a public park.

The Downtown Development Corp. on Tuesday revealed it had gathered more than 60 investors over the last two years to purchase the development rights of the flood-prone 2.6-acre property and would offer them to the city for $1 million as part of a cooperative agreement that requires the land to eventually become green space.

"We're going to sell them back for a very reasonable amount to the city," said DDC Board Chair Roberta Parks. "This is a major, major step toward moving the project along."

City Manager Patrick Urich said he expected the agreement to come before the City Council within about a month, though the raised concrete slab that had been home to Joe's Crab Shack for more than 15 years until its closure Monday night likely will remain in place for several more months.

The city will not move forward with demolition until leases with all other tenants in Riverfront Village, including the restaurant New Amsterdam and the DDC itself, are resolved, Urich said. That may not happen until 2017.

In the meantime, the city is looking for ideas how to transform the land from a commercial center atop a paved parking lot into "active" parkland where residents can relax and play along the Illinois River. The planpeoria.com website already is accepting those ideas.

"That's the first step in this engagement process," Urich said. "The idea is to really re-envision what we'd like to see on the riverfront."

Mayor Jim Ardis said the public would be involved in the redevelopment process, and that conceptual renderings presented by the DDC on Tuesday were not final.

"This is very preliminary, and there's going to be more discussion than you can imagine," Ardis said. "We're at the beginning of a new day along our riverfront."

The announcement Tuesday represents a significant departure from the original vision that drove the development of Riverfront Village 20 years ago, when the block across Water Street was occupied by the vacant former Sears building. The new commercial enterprises coming to the riverfront in the late 1990s proved to be a catalyst for other developments Downtown and along the river, Ardis said.

Developer Mike Wisdom was at the forefront of the discussion then and worked with the city to bring tenants to the development. Joe's Crab Shack and Damon's restaurants were the first to occupy the primary slots at Riverfront Village. While Joe's Crab Shack remained for years, other restaurants came and went at the second location, where New Amsterdam is now located. That restaurant is looking for a new location.

Wisdom, through Riverfront Village Developers, leases and maintains the buildings on top of the Riverfront Village platform, while the city has retained ownership of the platform and property itself.

Former Mayor Bud Grieves commended Wisdom on Tuesday for the risk he took to jump-start economic activity Downtown with Riverfront Village and the developer's continued commitment to the property.

"I couldn't thank him enough 20 years ago, and I can't thank him enough now," Grieves said.

Wisdom also was an integral part of Tuesday's announcement by agreeing to sell the development rights for the property to the DDC, and, ultimately, the city. In his comments at the news conference Tuesday, Wisdom acknowledged shifting perceptions of what residents want on the riverfront — away from chain restaurants and office space toward open areas that anyone can use.

"We recognize the change, and we're looking forward to the next evolution of our magnificent riverfront," Wisdom said.

Matt Buedel is the Journal Star business reporter. He can be reached at 686-3154 and mbuedel@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @JournoBuedel.