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Urbana enterprise zone supported 58 residential builds in 2025, including a 24‑home Hope Village, administrator says
Summary
Enterprise-zone administrator Hillary Ortiz told the advisory board that 2025 activity included 58 residential projects worth about $21.76 million and a 24‑home Hope Village tiny‑home community for medically fragile adults; three commercial projects received sales tax exemptions and the city reported $62.23 million in EAV growth since 2014.
Hillary Ortiz, executive assistant for community development and enterprise zone administrator for the City of Urbana, told the Enterprise Zone Advisory Board that the enterprise zone supported 58 new residential projects in calendar year 2025, representing about $21,760,000 in project costs.
Ortiz said the residential total included 57 single‑family homes and a 24‑home tiny‑home component of the Hope Village initiative, a tiny‑home community being developed to provide stable permanent housing and on‑site support for medically fragile adults at high risk of homelessness. "Each home includes basic living amenities, and the residents will have access to on‑site support services, including case management and connections to health care and behavioral health resources," Ortiz said.
On the commercial side, Ortiz reported three projects applied for enterprise‑zone incentives in 2025: an office expansion at 1414 West Anthony Drive, a conversion at 208 West Grigg Street (the former Best of Africa store) into a kombucha production and retail space, and an interior renovation at 402 North Maple Street (the former Urbana Garden restaurant) into Maple and Yoke. All three received the sales tax exemption; two were ineligible for property tax abatement because they either were inside a TIF district or did not meet the $100,000 minimum project cost required for commercial abatements.
Ortiz said the three commercial projects represented $731,603 in combined project costs and are expected to create or retain 47 full‑time jobs, including seven newly created positions. She also presented a chart showing total equalized assessed value growth tied to the enterprise zone since 2014 of about $62,230,000.
During public comment, Chris Evans, speaking as a private citizen, urged the board to ensure enterprise‑zone benefits reach local residents rather than University of Illinois students. "I would like clarification and emphasis made that enterprise zones are supposed to benefit poor people," Evans said, adding that developers sometimes treat U. of I. students as the low‑income beneficiaries of projects. The board did not take action on that comment during the meeting.
The administrator displayed an interactive GIS map for board members to review aerial imagery and parcel development history and closed the activities presentation by offering to answer questions.
