McHenry Market Pulse: What is the City of McHenry doing to fill all the vacant buildings?????

A successful holistic economic development program includes: establishing and maintaining relationships; networking and engaging stakeholders; providing consistent and accurate information; facilitating a straightforward predictable development review process which promotes business attraction, retention and expansion!!!!!

A question I am asked quite frequently is: What is the City of McHenry doing to fill vacant retail, office and industrial buildings?

Following I provide a snapshot of a few of the activities the City does and has been doing for several years; many of which are on-going and others are additional actions which will be implemented in the near future…….

Maintain regular contact with real estate brokers, developers and business and property owners (existing and prospective) engaged in industrial, retail and office development (Example: I recently sat down with a very highly regarded management company which owns a shopping center in the City of McHenry as well as numerous other centers throughout the Chicagoland Region and also had a similar conversation with a prominent national commercial broker, active in the market for over two decades, to enlist their thoughts and opinions, both of whom I have great respect and known for many years…);
Network with other professionals and continue to educate myself about trends, the market and what other communities are doing to address economic development related challenges (Example: I attended the 7th Annual Financial Forecast Forum: "Private Sector Views that will Impact the Public Sector” hosted by Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies);
Provide list (updated bi-annually) of available properties including (retail, office, industrial and vacant land) throughout the City, as well as other economic-development programs the City offers (Example: West Illinois Route 120 Corridor Enhancement Initiative, Façade Grant and Revolving Loan Fund Programs); policies, documents and useful informational resources, which can be found by clicking on the following link: http://www.ci.mchenry.il.us/departments/development/economic.html;
Collaborate with other taxing bodies and stakeholder groups to hold seminars and disseminate information on economic development initiatives and potential partnership opportunities (Example: Underutilized Property Tax Abatement and Incentive Program);
Visit businesses seeking to locate to the City of McHenry and those in the City seeking to expand, contemplating relocation, requiring assistance with employee training/recruitment, answering questions, providing assistance, referrals and resources (Example: Recently I visited two businesses seeking to locate in the City of McHenry, one in Boone County and another in northern McHenry County);
Provide building, floodplain, utility, property maintenance, zoning, planning (Example: census data, socioeconomic, demographic, population, housing, location of water and sewer lines and property pins), and economic development assistance (Example: market studies, leakage analyses, employment, and employer industry information), answer questions as well as offer suggestions.

Coming in future blog posts:

Importance of economic diversification;
Why doesn’t (fill in the name of a business) locate in the City of McHenry?
Future trends in economic development and how has economic development changed over the past several years?
What factors do businesses consider before they decide to locate/relocate, close, and/or expand?
Challenges associated with economic development…