Urbana student consultants outline plan to revive Philo Road corridor

Student consultants from the Geese College of Business presented a market- and field-based plan to Urbana officials on May 7 aimed at reversing long-running business closures and capturing local retail demand on Philo Road.

The students told city leaders their analysis of U.S. Census and local Sage data shows roughly $224,000,000 in resident spending in categories such as food, apparel and health care inside the corridor trade area, and estimated that $164,000,000 of that demand—about 73.5 percent—is currently captured outside the corridor. "So this is not a low demand corridor," said Rodolfo Colina Laredo, the student team leader, and added the question is "where is all this money going to?"

The presentation combined quantitative modeling with in-person interviews. The team reported significant unmet demand in health care and pharmacy services (they estimated $52.9 million in unmet demand in health care and drugs) and low capture rates for restaurants and apparel. Rodolfo said re-occupying the vacant Walgreens with a pharmacy could raise the health-care capture rate from 27.3 percent to 36.5 percent; adding five casual restaurants could lift the food-away-from-home capture to about 22.1 percent; and a single clothing store could increase apparel capture from zero to roughly 12.8 percent—together the students estimated the four targeted additions could retain about $22.2 million annually in the corridor.

Students emphasized perception and public-safety concerns as a major barrier to business retention and attraction. "None of the respondents felt safe at night," Ellie, a team member, said summarizing the survey of business owners; the team also found retail theft was the most common incident type in the corridor data. Presenters recommended a combined approach — reassessing police patrol patterns, improving lighting and streetscape, and coupling enforcement with social services such as shelter and behavioral-health access — to address the underlying causes of nighttime disorder.

The students flagged two structural problems constraining small businesses: awareness and eligibility for existing incentives. They reported that none of the eight surveyed businesses had used the enterprise zone incentives and that many tenant-operated firms make investments (examples cited: a $7,000 fence, $1,500 in signage, a $10,000 freezer) but fall short of the $100,000 minimum required for larger commercial- investment abatements. "There is a lack of incentives for smaller tenant-operated businesses, and limited awareness when it comes to existing opportunities," Ellie said.

The team also presented a comparable case study—the "Soul City" corridor—which used anchor-tenant redevelopment, a $21 million streetscape investment, targeted small-business grants and a unified corridor management team to seed 20 new small businesses and improve perception. Bria Tuttle, another student presenter, suggested Urbana consider targeted recruitment requests for proposals to fill vacant anchors (for example, pharmacies or health services), promote smaller grants (neighborhood opportunity funds, signage grants) tailored to tenant-operated businesses, and appoint a single point manager to coordinate implementation.

Mayor Deshaun Williams and other city staff praised the students. Council and staff members asked clarifying questions about the survey sample and local partners: the students said they collected eight completed surveys and that many other businesses declined to participate in the written survey but were engaged through in-person visits. Staff also asked whether local organizations such as Salt and Light were considered as potential grocery partners; students said Salt and Light had been discussed but was not captured by the formal survey responses.

No motions or votes followed the briefing; the city accepted copies of the students' slides for staff review. Council members and staff indicated interest in further exploring the students' recommendations, including potential anchor recruitment, additional streetscape investment, a public-safety reassessment and outreach to ensure small businesses know about available grants.

The presentation concludes the student team's Phase I recommendations; city staff will review the slides and consider next steps for any RFPs, grant outreach and implementation coordination.