Developers, business owners join city leaders in Delavan’s renewed push to restore downtown vibrancy

The city of Delavan in southern Tazewell County is making a reinvigorated push to revitalize its historic downtown corridor.

Retiring longtime mayor Liz Skinner says seeing vibrancy restored to the stretch of Locust Street on both sides of the Fourth Street intersection has long been her priority.

“One of the things that was really important to me is to get our downtown back up and going again,” said Skinner, who is not seeking another term after more than 16 years in office.

Skinner said the current turnaround effort comes nearly a decade after the area experienced the start of a rebirth.

“I have to go back a few years when Libby Mathers was here and had the Harvest Café and those properties, and we were booming at that time — really, really booming,” Skinner said. “Unfortunately, Libby passed away (in 2019), her son subsequently shut down those businesses and it was like a ghost town.

“We wanted to go back to a vibrant downtown, and that’s so important for the longevity of the city.”

On the same page

City Administrator Matt Fick said the community needed to get city leaders and business owners engaged and thinking on the same page. In order to attract developers, he said the city needed to offer incentives such as tax increment financing (TIF) money to put toward needed renovations on century old buildings.

“The city would give them a certain amount of money to help offset that cost, because without it, the projects don’t move forward,” Fick said. “I think that’s evident the fact that it’s been I don’t know how many years since a project has taken place in Delavan.”

Fick said a group called Smart Start was hired to assist with the process.

“They came in, they kind of had these workshops, and they’d invite small business owners and people who thought about, ‘hey, maybe I’d like to own a business,’” said Fick, noting the advice focused on such things as how to up a limited liability corporation (LLC), pay business taxes, and develop marketing plans.

“More than anything, it just got people kind of talking and networking kind of got the ball rolling.”

One person who took advantage of the workshops is Tommie Chadwick, who recently opened Ichabod’s Apothecary, an herbal remedy wellness and education center.

“I think Delavan, where it’s at right now is, we’re growing, and I just want to be a part of that,” she said. “I think it’s wonderful, what’s happening here right now.”

Chadwick said she values being embedded in the burgeoning downtown business community.

“We’re just there for each other because we know it’s just beginning to start growing, that we need to lean on each other’s specialties and help so we can all get our businesses up and going together,” she said.

Adam White is a Central Illinois developer and Realtor whose group bought the former Harvest Café and three adjacent buildings.

“About two years ago, I really started getting involved in the city. We brought back the Delavan Fall Festival last year, and we did it again this year. It’s been a big success, and it just kind of showed me that the opportunity is there,” White said.

“I was always worried about small town, will it grow back? Could it happen? And the more I see everyone pushing, I really started to believe in it and thought this was the right move.”

White’s plan is to reopen The Exchange bar and grill with a new menu, and turn the café location into a new family-focused pizzeria called Trio’s.

“Your downtown’s your core, and with that it will inspire the rest,” White said. “If we have more going on down here, it draws more people in. We can have more events, more festivals, which in turn brings more tax revenue so we can support — we have our own school system here, so help support that.

“As well as just general things we’d like to do around here, as far as maybe buildings that aren’t for sale that need some upkeep, some of that money can be used to kind of bring them back to life and just keep the area nice.”

Colorado-based entrepreneur Jerod Raisch is a Delavan native whose parents once had a flower shop in the former bank building on the northwest corner of Fourth and Locust. Raisch recently purchased the building and is reviving Mathers’ plan to develop it into a distillery.

“There’s a hometown root to it; I’ve got a lot of friends that are still back in Delavan,” Raisch said. “I think that the town is just deserves better, and I think seeing other entrepreneurs that are putting their best foot forward, the stars have aligned here.”

Regional destination

Raisch doesn’t have an exact timeline yet on when he hopes to open the distillery, but said the prospect of seeing several developments going on at once offers optimism that downtown Delavan can become a regional destination.

“That’s the goal, and I think the more that people put their energy to doing it at a similar time, you’re going to have better results,” he said. “I think when one business tries to do it and opens up a whether it’s a restaurant or whatever it may be, and tries to get that attraction. It’s one thing, but when you have multiple businesses doing it simultaneously, I think there’s better hope that it’s going to work for everybody.”

Adrian Rabe owns Bloomington-based Keystone Construction. His group has purchased three adjacent buildings on South Locust and is working on renovating them for commercial and residential space.

“I’ve always enjoyed renovating old buildings, giving them new life and new purpose, instead of getting demoed. So came and looked at them, and it was, ‘yeah.’ We were able to get a plan together and get things started,” Rabe said.

“We got the buildings obtained about a year ago, roughly, and the clean out process was quite involved; there was a little more damage than we anticipated, between water and termites. But we got that all out of the way, and we’re finally to the fun part of getting things finished up.”

Rabe said their properties in the 300 block of Locust will feature upstairs apartments and ground-level retail space that will include a hub kitchen and an events center.

“I remodel old houses and then do masonry jobs, so at first it was predominantly just another business decision, like, ‘Oh, if I can make a living doing this and it make sense, I’m gonna do it,’” he said. “Since then, I am excited to be a part of a larger effort just to revitalize the downtown area and bring everything together. There’s a lot going on with the other buildings as well, and it sounds like it’s all going to come together around the same time.”

The hope is the revival will benefit downtown Delavan’s existing businesses as well. Joey Campbell owns the Beauty Of A Site boutique that has operated out of a Locust Street storefront for the last 10 years.

“When I moved to town, the Harvest Café and Libby Mathers’ businesses were open, and so Delavan had kind of seen that resurgence already,” Campbell said. “Then, unfortunately, when her businesses closed and then COVID hit, we had a little lull, so those businesses have been empty.

“But lately we’ve been seeing a lot of interest in growth, as far as new development and new restaurants opening. So we’re excited about the growth and the opportunities that we have here in town, and hopefully it’ll generate more business.”

Campbell said she can envision all the new development turning downtown Delavan into a regional destination — for shopping, dining, and even nightlife.

“We’ve seen it once before in our community, so hopefully we kind of have that as a blueprint and something to strive for,” she said. “I think Delavan has the potential to be sort of like Washington, Illinois, on a smaller scale. The historic buildings are very nice; the townspeople are great.

“It’s just a nice little town and it’s well kept. Our city government is great, and they’re easy to work with, and so hopefully it sparks interest and brings more people to town.”

Mayor Skinner said downtown Delavan is capitalizing on a unique opportunity to blend its sense of history with a lively business community, enhancing what her son described to her as a “Norman Rockwell” vibe.

“I think there is that kind of an environment still here in Delavan, a quality of life that is really second to none,” she said. “We need to make sure that moving forward, for the people and the families living here today, that it’s true and that it continues for generations to come.”