By Bob Seidenberg
Evanston economic development officials reported making headway last week on a number of initiatives included in the Evanston Thrives report designed to activate the city’s business districts.
At the April 23 Economic Development Committee meeting, officials provided a status report on the projects — many having grown out of the 2023 Evanston Thrives study, which recommended strategies policy makers could take to help business districts thrive as they emerged from COVID.
The City Council allocated $3 million of the original $43.1 million federal COVID recovery American Recovery Protection Act money the city received in 2021 to be earmarked specifically for economic development.
So far, approximately $2.62 million out of a total budget of $3.43 million for projects is either funded or under contract, Paul Zalmezak, the city’s economic development manager, reported at the meeting, providing an updated status report.
On a number of projects, officials plan to tap Tax Increment Finance funds to pay some costs not covered by the $3 million ARPA allocation, Zalmezak said.
Projects include the following:
- Purchasing place-making equipment — portable stages, wide-arm Adirondack chairs, fire pits, e.g. — at a cost of $100,000. Place-making equipment received top priority ranking under the study, which emphasized the need to create a mix of permanent and temporary gathering places for events or seasonal activities, bringing people back to downtown and the city’s other business districts. Currently, purchased material is stored in trailers parked in the lot behind the main library, Zalmezak said.
- Establishing clear gateways at the entrances of the city’s various business districts, an estimated $570,980 cost. This could include signs along the lines of “Welcome to Central Street” or “You’re in downtown Evanston,” Zalmezak suggested at a previous meeting. The city has contracted with Design Signage Group on the project, which is still in its development stage, officials said in their memo. The company has done a site visit and is working on drawings.
- Improving the outdoor dining plaza on 909 Davis St. The city has hired a Chicago firm, Living Habits, to spruce up the plaza, which runs opposite of 909 Davis, the city’s current home. At a total cost of nearly $500,000, the project has a priority ranking of 3. Zalmezak told committee members that a memorandum of understanding will have to be executed with the 909 Davis St. building ownership to determine responsibilities, and that officials expect to come before the City Council soon to sign off on the cost of furniture — tables, chairs, etc., in the plaza, “because they’re going to be expensive.”
- Lighting of CTA and Metra structures at Main Street and Dempster Street, with $246,240 funded out of the $500,000 budgeted cost. The city is working with Leni Schwendinger Light Projects on the project, which is still in the engagement stage with the vendor working on draft designs.
- Completing the Independence Park Dining Terrace, priority ranking 5. Officials added $500,000 in ARPA money to fund construction of the dining terrace to go along with a $1.7 million renovation of the park — which sits just off Central Street between Stewart and Prairie avenues. Terrace construction is completed, with brightly colored Adirondack chairs already on site.
- Replacing downtown trash cans, a $165,104 cost. New cans have been installed, “and it’s very gratifying to see them out there in community,” said EDC member Andy Vick, executive director of Downtown Evanston, the organization that manages that Special Service Area district. City Council members had debated last year the cost of new containers, with staff recommending the more expensive ones be located downtown at intersections with the highest amount of pedestrian traffic. “A real win for our community,” Vick said at the April 23 meeting.
Some other items on staff’s list generated discussion at the meeting.
Arrington Lagoon Restaurant: The equipment and electrical upgrades are essentially completed, staff said. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department handled the build-out of the building, coming in under the $100,000 budget. In discussion, EDC member Lisa Dzeikan asked whether officials are exploring to do more. “The idea is to really activate that space, activate that building,” she said. “I just don’t know if we’ve done it yet.”
“I want it to be a source of community gathering,” Dzeikan said, speaking of an experience she had visiting a similar enterprise in a community to the north. But Council Member and Committee Member Clare Kelly, whose support helped bring the cafe to the Arrington Lagoon shelter building, maintained the city-operated cafe is “on track to achieving everything that we’re expecting to achieve.” The business now has a liquor license, she noted. The cafe was open many days during the winter too, she said, serving hot chocolate indoors for the skaters using the Arrington Lagoon ice rink. “So that was really, really lovely,” she said.
Callan Plaza: Staff has recommended that the $100,000 cost for the project be revised downward to $40,000. The project — development of a three-block stretch of Callan Avenue between Howard and Brummel streets — ran into strong criticism from neighbors in the area last year. They raised concern that a permanent plaza would affect traffic, including school buses, and remove parking.
In wake of the criticism, MKSK, a Chicago-based landscape architect group, pulled back from plans to design a permanent plaza.
The revised plan, said Katie Boden, the city’s economic development coordinator, uses a lighter touch “that will spruce that area without affecting traffic or parking … but just make that space a little nice if they were to choose to use it as an event space a couple of times a year.” Meanwhile, Art Encounter, which leads the city’s public mural program, has applied to do a mural as part of the spruce-up, she said.
Fountain Square South improvements, a $200,000 cost: Officials are still researching costs for paving over the south plaza area, something that was not on the original priority list.
