National Association of REALTORS® Community Outreach Department Smart Growth Action Grants Aurora, Illinois: Downtown Revitalization Showcase Aurora, Illinois, outside of Chicago, is a city with “good bones” – a beautiful downtown core nestled alongside the Fox River outside of Chicago. But the city has nonetheless suffered over the last several decades as factories closed and activity moved into the suburbs. But the community is determined to turn that around – and local REALTORS® are part of the action. “REALTORS® are very much the sales force of the cities they live and work in,” says Sharon Gorrell, who works for the Illinois Association of REALTORS® and serves as Local Government Affairs Director for the Fox Valley and Aurora TriCounty areas. “For revitalization to be successful, the city has to train its sales force, like any company. REALTORS® need to know how to sell their product.” That training was the primary goal of the Aurora Downtown Showcase a day-long expo put on in part with a $3,000 Smart Growth Action Grant from the National Association of REALTORS®. More than 200 commercial real estate agents and other guests gathered on June 5th this year to listen to speakers, view displays on city projects to revitalize parks and the riverfront, and enjoy a luncheon. In the afternoon the REALTORS® took part in extensive walking tours and visited open houses in several downtown buildings. The day started off with a welcome by Aurora mayor Tom Weisner and finished with a reception. While the event focused on the advantages of investing in downtown Aurora, it was more than a sales job – it was designed to educate REALTORS® about how smart growth can offer residents more choices in housing and transportation, while giving businesses new opportunities to grow without adversely affecting the environment. The featured speakers included Douglas Farr of Farr Associates speaking about the potential for building ‘green’ by participating in the LEED certification process, and NAR’s Hugh Morris speaking on the potential for downtown revitalization and the role of REALTOR’s® in making it successful. Noted architect James Loewenberg related his experience designing highly successful urban residential and mixed-use developments in the Chicago region. The expo was coordinated with Seize the Future – a redevelopment foundation that has pooled community resources to revitalize the city of 170,000. David Dorgan of Seize the Future says the event, and an event held the year before for residential real estate agents, have been critical educational tools for a real estate community that had focused on suburban subdivision development.
“There hasn’t been a housing market in downtown, and the point is, I have to make people believers in downtown. We’ve been supported very well by the REALTORS®.” Aurora’s downtown makeover is well underway, with revitalization of the riverfront and the city’s train station (which features a Metra commuter train into Chicago). A 2,000 unit housing development and another 150-unit condominium project that is a transit-oriented development are under construction right now. The ‘high-end’ nature of the Aurora Downtown Showcase event wouldn’t have been possible without the NAR support, but Gorrell says what was even more valuable was the knowledge that the national association felt this was important. “It spoke volumes that we had this large million-plus member organization willing to come to the city and be part of the action.”