City officials and a local business advocacy group soon could embark on a campaign to re-evaluate Evanston’s downtown business clientele, a move supported by Evanston’s Economic Development Committee.
EvMark Executive Director Diane Williams and Assistant City Manager Judith Aiello outlined a plan Wednesday that could be the latest step in Evanston’s 15-year downtown plan. Known as the downtown visioning process, the project should get off the ground by this spring, Williams said.
“A couple of years ago we were wringing our hands saying, ‘what are we going to do with downtown?'” Aiello said. “Now part of it is, ‘what are we going to do with the success of downtown in order to maintain it?'”
The $14,000 plan, which must ultimately be approved by Evanston City Council, includes a series of focus groups and discussions with current and prospective retailers for the downtown area. According to the plan, the city and EvMark will partner with Mid-America Real Estate, an outside consulting firm, to study feasible projects for the downtown.
Committee members on Wednesday said they would like to see a greater influx of retail ventures in the downtown area, noting that business now seems to be moving more in the direction of storefront restaurants.
“We have to make a case to a retail market that this is a sustainable market,” said Ald. Gene Feldman (9th).
Aiello said she hoped the program would encourage property owners to be more discriminating when renting their buildings.
“We have property owners who have owned their buildings for years,” she said. “We want to gently guide them in the direction of talking to (new) people.”
But after Wednesday’s meeting, Williams said downtown visioning was not a plot to drive existing businesses out of town.
“We’re looking to involve (property owners) in this vision process so that they can identify the necessary business mix and make their building viable,” she said.
The other segment of the plan involves a traffic study to gauge consumers’ opinions on traffic density in the downtown area. Feldman said this is a critical component of the process.
“We want to know at what point people refuse to go to downtown Evanston because the traffic is too bad,” Feldman said. “We should be able to know what downtown Evanston could handle and should handle. All of those things help us.”
The committee also discussed a proposed development by Bristol Chicago Development in the newly approved Howard Street TIF district. The Plan Commission will discuss the item at its Feb. 11 meeting.
