For Amy Jackson, owner of yoga studio The Perch on River Street, downtown Aurora has “so much potential.”
Unlike other cities’ downtowns, it isn’t “cookie cutter” with big chains and box stores, she said. It’s got “mom and pop shops” and small businesses, like hers.
But growing up in Aurora in the early 2000s, “you didn’t go downtown” because it wasn’t safe and there wasn’t anything there, Jackson said. Now that its safe and has “amazing shops,” she said downtown businesses are still battling that mindset.
So it feels to her like the time is right to get the word out. And that’s going to be one of the goals of a new organization currently being formed to support Aurora’s downtown.
Jackson is one of around 10 people representing downtown businesses and property owners that have been meeting recently to get the organization up and running. The effort is being supported by the city of Aurora after city officials proposed the creation of the new organization earlier this year based on feedback from the downtown area.
Despite its connection to the city, the new nonprofit is planned to be run by an independent board, although the exact details are still being worked out. The yet-to-be-launched organization is expected to support Aurora’s downtown through marketing, events, business support and more using funds generated by a special tax applied to property within the downtown area, or more specifically within Special Service Area Number One.
Harish Ananthapadmanabhan, who owns several pieces of property in downtown including the historic Hobbs Building, is also on the startup committee. He said that, whether it’s through streetscapes, business development strategies or whatever else, the goal of the new organization will be to make sure that downtown businesses are not just surviving, but are thriving.
“We just need to figure out as a group how we can make that happen, especially with different board members coming up with different ideas, and how can we all agree upon what is best for downtown Aurora as a whole,” he said.
The start-up group also needs to work to create a strategy, a structure and ways to be accountable so “we’re actually executing and not just talking about things,” according to Ananthapadmanabhan.
He said that, as a major contributor to Special Service Area One funds, he wanted to be a part of the decision-making group to “make sure we are all growing in the same direction.”
Nancy Martinez of Nide Jardin, a home decor and plant boutique in downtown Aurora, is another one of those meeting to launch the new organization.
She wanted to be a part of the effort because the previous Aurora Downtown organization did many good things, but also made some missteps, she said. In particular, she believes the previous nonprofit didn’t do enough to market or involve all in downtown, she said, and the beauty of Aurora is having diverse businesses.
One mission Martinez would like to see the new organization take on is small business retention. There are already “amazing” organizations doing that work, she said, and so she’d like to see the new nonprofit get involved with them.
Like Jackson, Martinez said she also wants the new organization to get more of the Aurora community to come downtown. Big names didn’t invest in other cities’ downtowns until they saw those cities’ own communities investing there, she said.
Another thing Jackson and Martinez have in common is that their businesses, although they are downtown, are not currently within Special Service Area One, the taxing district that will provide funding to the nonprofit. They spoke of hopefully expanding the area to include their businesses, which are both in the same building on South River Street.
Expanding the boundaries of Special Service Area One is one of the things the organization will likely consider, but first efforts are being centered around getting the nonprofit formally established. Early meetings of the start-up committee have led to the group selecting a law firm to help formally organize the nonprofit, draft bylaws and provide other legal assistance for the organization, according to city of Aurora Downtown Economic Development Manager Danielle Tufano, who’s helping the group organize.
In October, the Aurora City Council approved the use of $50,000 from Special Service Area One funds, as well as city staff time, to help the new organization get started. The organization likely won’t be up-and-running until the spring, city of Aurora Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson told The Beacon-News in an interview last month.
Earlier in the year, the city sent a letter to downtown stakeholders proposing the new nonprofit, citing feedback received during downtown-specific town halls held in June. Aurora Mayor John Laesch previously said that, while different opinions were shared at those town halls, broadly people wanted a more democratic process over how downtown tax dollars are spent, more transparent, inclusive leadership and stronger cooperation with the city.
Jackson said she appreciates that transparency has been a key goal of the city in the process so far, and that this organization will truly be independent of the city.
Although the city has made recommendations about how the organization will work, ultimately those decisions are in the hands of the start-up committee, according to Tufano. Many of those recommendations were outlined in the letter sent to downtown stakeholders earlier this year.
For example, it proposed responsibilities that the organization would have, that the city would have and some they would share.
The city, the letter showed, would be responsible for overseeing the budget, managing databases, board logistics and the legal setup of the organization. The organization would be responsible for day-to-day operations and stakeholder communications as well as marketing and events.
Shared responsibilities would include financial transparency, reporting to stakeholders, strategic planning and support for the board, the letter proposed.
The letter also included a proposal for a board of directors with seven voting members, made up of four people who own property within Special Service Area Number One and three owners or managers of businesses located within the special service area.
Under the proposal, the board would also have three to five non-voting advisory member seats for city employees and four “ex officio” members, one each from the Aurora Civic Center Authority, Waubonsee Community College, the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Aurora Area Economic Alliance.
The new nonprofit is planned to be similar to a previous one, known as Aurora Downtown, that joined with others to form the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance at around the beginning of the year. That former organization used to manage Special Service Area Number One funds to support downtown property owners and businesses, plus develop new businesses, through things like marketing, improvements, events and more.
Richard-Thompson previously said that this new organization would be similar to the previous one in function, but could be different in its governance and its level of transparency.
Although the city of Aurora is now supporting the start-up of this new nonprofit, last year it financially supported Aurora Downtown’s merger with the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce, Invest Aurora and the Quad County African American Chamber of Commerce, which collectively became the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance.
The idea, for which the Aurora City Council approved $3 million, was to bring these separate economic organizations under one umbrella to combine their efforts and cut out repeat functions.
Between the Aurora City Council approving the $3 million in seed money for the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance and the recent recommendation to reform a downtown organization, Laesch was elected and sworn in as the city’s new mayor. When he previously sat on the City Council as an alderman at-large, he voted against giving the $3 million to the Alliance.
When the proposal came before the Aurora City Council in October to support the creation of the new downtown organization, it sparked questions about the Alliance. A vote was delayed amid those questions and others about process, but the proposal was later unanimously approved.
That approval came after Alliance interim President and CEO Jenny Maltas wrote a letter to Aurora aldermen saying that, after meetings with Laesch, she felt there was a path forward for a partnership between the city and the Alliance. An earlier letter from the Alliance’s Executive Committee had outlined several instances of the city not communicating with the Alliance, despite the organization’s efforts.
The city of Aurora is also looking to take back economic development efforts that went to the Alliance through Invest Aurora when it was founded. Aurora’s proposed 2026 budget now includes $2 million the city is looking to get back from the Alliance because of the change.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
