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MAHOMET — Under Mahomet’s master plan for its downtown, additional businesses would set up shop, trendy row houses would be developed and an upgraded streetscape design would come to fruition.
It’s all part of the dream, Village President Sean Widener said, but it won’t happen overnight. He said the process has been slower than village officials would like, but he sees progress.
So does Elizabeth McDermith, owner of downtown’s Yellow & Co., a gift shop and event space business.
She has seen downtown become a higher traffic area and would like to see more. It helps all businesses.
“I feel like my business is kind of a destination in Mahomet,” McDermith said. “A new game shop is bringing a lot of people.
“I think the addition of the green space — we’ve had some concerts in there — has been wonderful. Another florist is coming in downtown.”
The Main Scoop ice cream shop has generated a great deal of traffic, Widener said.
“I have not seen them not busy,” Widener said.
Chop House on Main, which will officially open in the building that formerly housed JT Walker’s Restaurant and Brewery, will also increase the downtown draw. Chophouse’s grand opening is set for 5 p.m. Friday. The business will be open for dinner only for the first couple of weeks, according to Kevin Hildebrand, chief operating officer for owner CRS Hospitality.
McDermith said she has noticed more out-of-town visitors to downtown. Her main complaint: Many Mahomet residents have no grasp of what is available downtown.
Widener said there has been progress in downtown development, but would like to see more. But being a bedroom community so close to Champaign is a help (higher population growth) and a hindrance (limiting commercial development).
This month, the village board formally named the green space “Freedom Plaza.”
“Originally it was a very nondescript area we called ‘The Village Green,’” Widener said.
The plaza was developed after the village bought three properties east of the village hall. The houses on those properties were demolished and the space cleared.
It was all part of the village’s downtown master plan approved by the village board in 2019.
Since the purchase of the properties that became Freedom Plaza, the village has bought four more parcels in and around the area.
“What we’re doing ... is we’re basically accumulating and assembling property to get it all under one ownership,” Widener said. “Our intent is to package it up and go out for proposals for prospective developers.”
Under the master plan, downtown would also include a $3 million bandshell plaza in Freedom Plaza, public art or a fountain, rain gardens and a gazebo.
Part of the redevelopment would include some mixed-use — a “young professional row house-type project to get some different housing stock adjacent to our downtown area,” Widener said. “But to do that you have to have multiple parcels together.”
The row houses could include housing on the second floor and business space on the first floor or housing on both floors.
“We also are looking at what’s the highest and best use of the land in the commercial core,” Widener said.
The next phase of downtown development will include hiring of professional services for a face lift of the 400 block of Main Street — between Lincoln and Elm streets.
“A full face lift, all the sidewalks and the space in front of all the businesses to bring that into today’s standards and enhance the aesthetics for folks coming into downtown,” Widener said.
Another program designed to improve the aesthetics was development of a downtown facade program — a 50/50 match of any storefront improvements, whether it be new paint, new windows, new awnings.
The village earlier also adopted a downtown TIF district to encourage development.
