CUED
Center
for Urban Economic Development
University of Illinois at Chicago
Management Plan for 79th and Cottage Grove Commercial Strip
Project Number: 131
Report Date: October 1981
Author(s): Dereck Wilson, Patricia Wright
The viability of the commercial strip bounded by 77th Street on the north, Dobson Street on the east, 81st Street on the south, and Rhodes Street on the west, is threatened. Vacancies in stores and shops are increasing. Business activity at the perimeters of the strip has slackened. Present efforts to stabilize the commercial strip have not been sufficient to stem the flight of investors. There is a need to implement a Business Revitalization Program on the strip that will address both its problems and opportunities.
Such a Business Revitalization Program would be composed of various phases of activity, all directed at reversing the business decline along the strip. The first activity would be to increase the membership of the Chatham Business Association to at least 50 percent of the businesses within the project area. The follow-up activity would be to coordinate and implement a collective advertising plan for members of the Chatham Business Association. Next, a facade improvement program would be launched specifically for those blocks that have been designated "areas of potential." As a complementary program to the last, an exterior illumination program would be undertaken, again targeting the blocks that have development potential.
The Chatham-Avalon Local Development Corporation (LDC) should restrict their lending to new businesses willing to locate on blocks identified as "areas of potential," and then only for first floor space. The Chatham Business Association (CBA) and the LDC should attempt to influence community lending institutions to do likewise. All providers of loans and/or technical assistance within the community should discourage more convenience services from locating in the project area. Instead, additional convenience and shoppers' goods store should be encouraged to locate along the strip. The thrust of the marketing plan should be directed at the residents of the Chatham-Avalon community.
The Chatham Business Association and the Local Development Corporation should establish a community owned, private development corporation. This corporation would be the vehicle to carry forward development aspects of the Business Revitalization Program. If the private development corporation determines that there is an opportunity for significant redevelopment, it should be restricted to the southeast corner of 79th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.
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