Gov. JB Pritzker recently announced the recipients of grants for the Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Street Capital Program. More than $106 million in grants will fund 45 projects across the state. The original program announcement in 2021 allocated $50 million. The subsequent allocation of $106 million shows the generous spending available to states because of the federal funding that came out of the COVID incentives.
Illinois likes to fund big, but the real question is whether this funding will be effective at downtown revitalization. Unfortunately, the program mostly funds streetscape improvements, which means sidewalks and other public infrastructure improvements that provide little benefit to downtown economic growth. Fancy new sidewalks do almost nothing to improve the overall economic development of older downtowns. The actual construction of streetscape projects is often detrimental to the small businesses that occupy many downtown properties.
Public works projects received a disproportionate amount of funding, despite the fact that the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has a separate infrastructure program. These projects create far fewer workers per dollar than building rehab projects, and rarely result in any increase to the local tax base. Politicians and policy makers are equally deceived by the jobs question. This quote from House Speaker Chris Welch is typical: "We have proven that we can be fiscally responsible and make these groundbreaking investments in communities." Similarly, state Rep Katie Stuart is quoted saying "I couldn't think of a better use of grant dollars than investing them in high-traffic areas...". There are far better ways to be fiscally responsible and invest in our older downtowns. Real investment builds the community tax base and the small businesses that keep downtowns alive. It is fiscally irresponsible to fund sidewalks when you haven't done the basic work of putting together a local economic team that knows the difference between construction dollars and economic development.
The use of post-pandemic federal funding for Main Streets and downtowns is showing up in other states, and there are much better examples of how to be fiscally responsible, create jobs and make better communities. One of the best of these comes from Iowa, where the state put $20 million into a downtown housing program aimed at putting housing into underutilized old schools and half-empty downtown buildings. The program will create almost 500 housing units in existing underutilized buildings at a typical public subsidy of $43,000 per unit. Every dollar of public investment will leverage a greater amount of private investment, all to properties that will increase the real estate tax base of these towns. This program will create affordable housing at a fraction of the cost of public programs that come at a price tag of $200,000 or more for a unit of subsidized housing. The program also had a scoring bias for smaller communities that are generally overlooked in the large construction projects. There are only a few projects on the Illinois list that would result in any increase in the community tax base. One noteworthy project is the city of Champaign, where the city will receive the funds and do smaller redevelopment grants to multiple buildings. This is a great way for these grant dollars to leverage private funding and be strategic in its investment. This does require a well-funded and professional city planning department, another thing missing in Springfield.
It is noteworthy that only four of the twenty Illinois Main Street communities received funding from the Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Street Capital Program. Most of these 20 communities have been working at downtown revitalization for years and many have completed streetscape projects, but only after they have done the hard work of planning and organizing for a comprehensive downtown approach that balances economic development with true community needs. Illinois' political and economic development leaders are unfortunately deluded into believing that construction dollars is the only measure of community development. When it comes to downtowns, the era of urban renewal has largely been replaced by the new panacea of "public infrastructure," which can include sidewalks, lighting and traffic signals. Illinois needs to get real about community development, particularly for our downtowns.
The Illinois Main Street program has been underfunded for years but is a proven economic development strategy. Most of these grants will just be another example of creating a few construction jobs that won't advance downtown economic development. Gov. Pritzker, you need to learn how to "build back better."
Mike Jackson of Springfield, FAIA, has spent his professional career in historic preservation and downtown revitalization. He was the Deputy State Historic Preservation Office in Illinois from 2009-2913. He was part of the state's team that activated the Illinois Main Street program in the mid-1990s. He continues his work across the U.S. through his consulting with Upstairs Downtown, a housing revitalization program.
