Champaign City Council members worked with Business Districts, Inc., to present a market analysis of the Country Fair Shopping Center at the meeting Tuesday night.

Key findings from the study showed that there may be twice as much retail space in the Country Fair area as logical markets support and there are a fair number of vacancies in the shopping center.

“The redevelopment plan would address how do we reuse this existing site and improve upon it to make it what modern retailers and other tenants would want out of this site,” said Mishauno Woggon, city planner and Country Fair project manager.

Woggon said that some setbacks of the site include too much parking, deteriorating conditions and a dysfunctional layout which makes it hard for shoppers to access the center.

The market analysis study suggests a redevelopment follow-up which includes determining actual parking utilization and investigating likely outlet tenants, as well as creating a more physically attractive and useful area.

The council members unanimously passed a motion to leave the dialogue open with the owner of the shopping center about Country Fair redevelopment.

A major reason for this action was the owner’s declination of an interview for the market analysis, which concerned several council members about the owner’s commitment to redevelopment.

“His cooperation was mixed. I know it was very hard for us to get a hold of the owner for a very long time. The owner did not directly participate in this study nor did the owner come to this meeting tonight,” said Dist. 5 Council member Ken Pirok. “However, the owner was interested in paying for part of the study and in receiving the results of the study with the some very specific ideas of redevelopment in mind.”

Other council members were concerned about the financial side of the redevelopment plan without the full cooperation of the owner.

“It would be foolish for the community and the tax payers to write the check and move along,” said At-Large Council member Deborah Feinen.

The Country Fair area is centrally located in Champaign, and therefore its redevelopment has been one of the council’s goals since 2006.

“As far as the area as a whole, it’s a corridor, an entranceway into the city,” Feinen said. “It’s a significant amount of space and it would be to the community’s benefit to have it not only look better, but to be developed in a way that provides additional tax dollars and revenue.”

Mayor Gerald Schweighart expressed that this project is very important and will be debated at future council meetings due to the importance of the Country Fair area to the Champaign community.