After seven years of recruiting efforts, an Urban Outfitters is finally coming to the heart of Campustown, occupying the ground level of a seven-story building being built at 507 E. Green St., just east of Cold Stone Creamery.

The building is being developed by JSM Management and is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2008. It will also have five floors rented out to the University for use as office space, according to a JSM press release on Monday.

“It was really on (Urban Outfitters’) part,” said Jill Guth, director of development for JSM. “We had contacted them numerous times trying to sell them on the benefits of Champaign-Urbana.”

JSM originally propositioned the idea of an Urban Outfitters in Champaign when developing Green Street Towers, 616 E. Green St., Guth said.

However, the Champaign-Urbana area was a little too small, said Lorraine Adney of The McDevitt Company, representing Urban Outfitters.

“Urban Outfitters typically goes out and targets major universities,” Adney said. The company has a Big Ten connection, she said, adding that it already opened stores at Michigan and Wisconsin.

“Champaign-Urbana is just a little bit smaller than some of those communities have been,” Adney said, but now “with JSM being sort of a community leader being a partner with the University we found a large enough format to do a large enough store.”

The new building will also be the new home for the University News Bureau, Institutional Advancement, Office of Publications and uTeach, according to the Board of Trustees’ lease approval passed at its Sept. 6 meeting.

Dennis McConaha, associate director of real estate and services, said the first year base cost of $706,498 is based on comparative prices in the area.

“There’s market conditions that reflect what reasonable rents are,” McConaha said. The University would be in a “world of hurt” if it didn’t have the option to lease spaces built by private companies, he said.

“They can build it for a lot less money than the University can,” McConaha said. “We haven’t had a capital budget from the state in six or seven years. This is an alternative to the University building their own.”

Guth said JSM offers the University “class-A office space in the core campus area” that can be built in tight spaces and on time. It is currently developing Gregory Place Apartments, 701 S. Gregory St.

“It’s well within our means to get both these projects completed,” Guth said.

But the inclusion of a major chain clothing store will bring a spark to Campustown that people have been missing, Adney said. She admitted she was probably a little biased to the opportunity, having earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University.

“I definitely had to look elsewhere for my fashion shopping,” Adney said. “I know from my personal history that it will fill a void.”