The Aurora City Council Tuesday evening approved $3 million in funding for a new organization dedicated to economic development in the city.
The money will be seed money, called a Transformation Fund, for an organization called Elevate Aurora, a merger of Invest Aurora, a not-for-profit economic development arm of the city; the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce; the Quad County African-American Chamber of Commerce; and the Aurora Downtown group.
The organizations would continue as they are, with the merger affecting their economic development components.
Kelly O’Brien, president and CEO of Invest Aurora, has said the idea for consolidation of the organizations came from other communities that have done the same thing. She said the four organizations all have economic development efforts, but they vary, and and while there is a history of cooperation, sometimes the efforts are not coordinated.
The original proposal was to fund the new organization, which will have a parent called the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance, with $5 million.
But after discussion, aldermen at this week’s City Council meeting changed the funding to $3 million as the seed money, with another $2 million if the organization comes back after it is more developed, and has a budget, and shows what some of the original $3 million went for.
That amendment was moved by Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, and passed the council 9-3. The eventual vote in favor of the $3 million with the potential for $2 million more passed 10-2, with Alds. John Laesch, at large, and Dan Barreiro, 1st Ward, voting against it.
Alex Alexandrou, the city’s chief management officer, said the idea to merge the economic development components of the city came after seeing “data and evidence from what other cities have done.”
“We asked, why not Aurora?” he said. “Why do we have to keep the same old, same old.”
The merger idea came out of a June study, titled “The Ecosystem Review and Best Practices,” that surveyed six business-oriented organizations – in addition to the four that are currently part of the merger, it also included the Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
After the study came out, all six organizations took part in discussions about the fragmentation, and exploring the idea of consolidating their efforts. By the middle of summer, the boards of the Aurora Area Chamber of Commerce, Aurora Downtown, Invest Aurora and the Quad County African-American Chamber of Commerce had voted to consolidate.
O’Brien said the treasurers of the organizations involved are coming together and each organization is reviewing the bylaws, suggesting any changes, in anticipation of a final merger vote Nov. 12.
“Once those votes are taken, we’re married,” she said.
The $5 million would come from part of a settlement the city received from Cyrus One for building a new data center campus on land near the Eola Road interchange with Interstate 88 once seen as a place for economic development for the city.
The area has now become a data center area, and the city negotiated the $16 million settlement in lieu of other kinds of economic development in that location.
Alexandrou said officials are contemplating $9 million going into a city revolving economic development fund that would finance city involvement in economic development projects. The fund would be revolving, meaning as the funded projects pay the city back, it would go back into the fund for more investment. It would be controlled by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development at City Hall.
Officials also are looking at putting an additional $1 million into historic preservation projects, and another $1 million into an existing facade business improvement program.
Alexandrou said the settlement was arrived at as sort of “lost opportunity cost” for economic development at the interchange that did not happen.
“We decided to activate the money in the spirit of economic development from whence it came,” he said.
The money is being incorporated into the 2025 budget.
Laesch suggested the money could be used for anything, possibly even to go toward construction of the road projects proposed along Farnsworth Avenue, Bilter Road and Church Road. The projects are in part because of the Hollywood Casino-Aurora resort project underway there, and could be seen as economic development, Laesch said.
“It could be used for something else, and would give the taxpayers some relief,” he said.
Mayor Richard Irvin said the settlement money was something that “was not supposed to happen.” He and Alexandrou approached Cyrus One about it, and negotiated the $16 million figure.
He said while roads “are important,” spending the settlement money on them would be a one-time expenditure, whereas using it as seed money for economic development would be “a gift that keeps on giving.”
“It builds up the value of our community,” he said. “There is a return on investment.”
Aldermen also said they were concerned about transparency and accountability for the new organization and for the seed money from the city.
Both Alds. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, and Michael Saville, 6th Ward, asked what would keep the organization from coming back and asking for more money.
O’Brien said the organization is trying to set up revenue streams to be self-sustaining.
The plan is to have a board of 13 people – five chosen by the mayor and two representatives from each of the four organizations – to run the new organization.
There would be a larger, overall advisory board made up of all the existing boards of the four organizations.
There would be accountability from the city’s representatives on the governing board. Also, the organization said it would come back to the City Council each quarter with reports.
Aldermen also questioned the timing of the funding, because the organization does not even have a budget yet.
“I don’t understand how if you don’t have a budget yet, how you know you need $5 million,” Laesch said.
O’Brien said the money was derived from looking at similar organizations across the country and the kind of money they needed. Alexandrou suggested the new organization is “in essence, a start-up” and needs initial funding.
Officials said the $5 million would be used for, among other things, a national-level consultant to an economic development strategic plan; creating departments within the organization for shared resources and decreasing duplicated efforts; and stabilizing the financial position of the organizations.
Goals of the new organization could go toward developing small, minority- and women-owned businesses; advancing workforce initiatives; innovation and entrepreneurship; promoting Aurora’s downtown; and economic development partnerships with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development at the city.
