Economic Development in Champaign (Illinois)

Economic Development in Champaign (Illinois) – 10 Years Of Progress Through Consistent Policymaking / Responsiveness is a PowerPoint presentation that was presented as part of the April 14, 2002 Session on Revitalizing Vacant and Abandoned Properties, a joint collaboration between APA and ICMA.

The purpose of presenting this material was to describe the community generally and to highlight recent successes in acquiring vacant property to achieve City goals. Home of the University of Illinois (along with Urbana), Champaign has been successful in completing several projects involving the acquisition of abandoned property. Chief among the reasons for this success is that Champaign has a “Goal-Centric Council with a high value placed on professional staff”. The presentation includes the recently established Council Goals for the next two years, which contain a number of community development goals.

Also included in the presentation are the reasons why the City has intervened in the ownership of some properties and four example projects in which City ownership played a major role: the Virginia Theater, Burnham Hospital Redevelopment, Modern Dairy acquisition and the “Green Apartments”. In each of these cases, the challenges of the projects and their resolution were described.

In conclusion, the presentation summarized some insights and observations Champaign credits with successful completion of large projects involving unwilling or uninvolved owners: Set Goals; Make Plans; Work with Policymakers Constantly; Develop Expertise of Staff

Author and Copyright Information

Craig Rost
Deputy City Manager For Development,
City of Champaign, Illinois
ROSTCR@ci.champaign.il.us

Economic Development in Champaign (Illinois) – 10 Years Of Progress Through Consistent Policymaking / Responsiveness

Session: Revitalizing Vacant and Abandoned Properties