Whether the demolition of a nearby building has become your new morning alarm or a leasing company has staked its claim on a fenced-in construction site, it’s nearly impossible to walk around the University without running into one of Champaign-Urbana’s newest building developments.
Leasing companies are claiming many construction projects amidst the rising population in Champaign. This is due in part to the increasing class sizes at the University.
The University News Bureau reported the newest freshman class as the highest in the school’s history, with just over 9,000 students enrolled. Overpopulation in University Housing has also added to alternative measures being taken as a means of adapting to the growing population.
The 2024 official United States Census reported the city of Champaign’s population at 89,462 residents, marking an increase of over 4,000 people in 10 years since 2014. As the city’s population continues to grow, housing accommodations continue to be made across Campustown.
Jon Fry, pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church & Campus Center, moved his office from its former building at 608 E. Chalmers St. to the basement of the University YMCA after demolition began this past summer.
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“The old building wasn’t accessible,” Fry said. “There were a lot of structural issues that needed to be taken care of.”
Smile Fairlawn Student Living received a permit on June 18 for the construction of a mixed-use seven-story building where St. Andrew’s and a neighboring apartment building used to stand, according to Randy Smith, building safety supervisor for the City of Champaign.
“What that typically means is there’s multiple parts of this building being used for different things,” Smith said. “It’s marked as both ‘R’ for residential and ‘A’ for assembly, and there may be a parking component of this building too.”
Smile began leasing the upper floors of the new building for fall 2025, preparing to rent out all 115 new apartments, according to Fairlawn Student Living’s Director of Marketing & Sales Lauren Barth.
“The existing Lutheran Campus Center building was aging and no longer met St. Andrew’s needs,” Barth said. “They were looking to renovate or replace the building, and since we owned an aging student apartment building next door, a collaboration made sense.”
The Building Safety Division of the Champaign Fire Department ensures that city codes related to building construction are enforced. These include permit applications, compliance with code and inspections of the construction sites.
“Building Safety is kind of the gatekeeper to the permitting process,” Smith said. “Any building construction project starts here.”
St. Andrews has been operating out of the University YMCA while the new building is constructed.
“We lost some of the visual identity of having people know that we are a church,” Fry said. “People knew we were the church with the pride flags and bike rack, and we lost some of that moving into the Y.”
The Zoning Administration is also directly involved in city construction projects. They work closely with the Building Safety Division as new apartment developments increase in demand.
“Broadly speaking, and very specific to zoning in particular, much of Campustown — including Green Street — allows for residential development,” said Kat Trotter, zoning administrator. “We do require a mixed-use component, so ground floor commercial and upper floors residential is what’s allowed on Green.”
Trotter has been involved in a variety of on-campus apartment construction projects in the last few months. A new seven-story building at 405 Stoughton St. provided 149 new residential units.
“Seeing investment (opportunities) in the existing apartment buildings is a positive thing,” Trotter said. “COVID-19 kind of slowed the development on campus. I think beyond Champaign-Urbana and across the country we’re starting to see a rebound from that a little bit. So it’s great to see housing being built more and more lately, and the city definitely hopes to see that continue.”
