Downtown Urbana a shell of its former self

Sept. 25--URBANA _ A building in downtown Urbana is being demolished to make way for an open-air market, but the storefront facade will be preserved to keep the look of the block much the same.

Matt Cho, who developed the [co][lab] collaborative working space at 206 W. Main St. and <org>Cafeteria & Company at 208 W. Main St., arranged for the demolition of the building at 204 W. Main St. _ between [co][lab] and Corson Music at 202 W. Main St.

"The building has been vacant for many years, and it has kind of deteriorated," Cho said. "Rebuilding or improving the interior was too cost-prohibitive ... so we're creating an open environment for different market uses _ somewhat like the Urbana farmers' market, but on a much smaller scale.

"For now, we're just calling it an open-air market concept. Possibly, it could have different uses like a night market, or even a weekend market. We'll get the building down and stabilize (the facade) and see what we have to work with. ... There are ideas on the table, but nothing has been firmed up."

At one time, the building at 204 W. Main St. was the site of T.J. Colvin's Meat Market, according to Donica Miller of the Champaign County Historical Archives at the Urbana Free Library. The meat market operated from 1885 to about 1937, according to an Urbana Evening Courier article from that year. The meat market was operated first by Thomas J. Colvin Sr. and later by his sons, Thomas Jr. and Ernest.

In more recent decades, the building has housed a variety of occupants, including Pagliai's Pizza, the Gatsche Insurance Agency and the Tom Berns campaign headquarters.

The building is being demolished from the rear, with the facade and some joists near the front to be retained.

"We want to keep Main Street intact visually," Cho said, explaining the facade's preservation.

Cho has employed a creative approach in redeveloping downtown Urbana properties. The [co][lab] space, for instance, provides a place where small, individually owned businesses can "plug into" other small businesses.

"They can work with others or learn from others who are also going through early-stage business challenges," he said.

Some businesses operating from the [co][lab] space include: Catedral Consulting; Miss Possible, which is developing dolls modeled after historical characters; the Colorable Worldwide advertising agency; the Adjacency creative agency; the Digital Equality Initiative not-for-profit group; Norden Design Studio; illustrator David Michael Moore; Creative Health; and C2E, an online training venture.

Temporary stores have also set up shop in the space, including "The Future Is Handmade," which is selling knitted items there this weekend. Earlier, Pandamonium Doughnuts would occasionally sell its gourmet doughnuts there.

With some other investors, Cho recently acquired the former Concept College of Cosmetology building at 129 N. Race St., U, and hopes to lease the 10,000 square feet there to "anyone interested in opening a cafe, food-or-drink or retail space." The cosmetology college moved a few blocks north and east to the Gateway Shoppes on University Avenue.

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