Welcome to Downtown Champaign
The Champaign Downtown Association welcomes you to Downtown Champaign. Serving as the cultural and entertainment hub of East Central Illinois, Downtown offers a variety of shopping, dining, and nightlife options all centered around a thriving and growing city center.
The Champaign Downtown Association strives to bring merchants, property owners and interested citizens together to make our Downtown a better place. If you have an interest in joining this association and being a part of the change, visit the membership link under “About CDA”.
We hope you enjoy your visit to Downtown Champaign and return soon!
We saw your segment on Early Morning, WCIA. You mentioned several options for rebuilding the damaged area of Champaign…
Oh, please – not a grocery “like” Trader Joe’s. BRING TRADER JOE’S TO CHAMPAIGN COUNTY!
Are you aware that TJ’s came in #2 *in the nation* for trusted brand food? (see http://consumerist.com/consumer/branding/gen-ys-top-15-most-trusted-brands-254501.php) — and that was according to the most desireable age range, 21-27.
And if Consumer Reports is your thing, read this: http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=653287
A Trader Joes here – it would be the closest to southern Illinois after Orland Park -
would draw folks from all of our more southern areas, and a substantial number of western Illinoisans.
But note – NOT “like” TJ’s. Similarity won’t work here. It must be TJ’s. And if you build it…wow, would they come!!
Champaign NEEDS a Trader Joe’s!!
I visited the Trader Joe’s on Ontario in Chicago this last weekend and fell in love with the place. Upscale food and beverages, incredible selections, decent prices, and a great atmosphere.
Champaign suffered a tragedy with the loss of a beautiful old downtown building to the fire on November 7th. Let’s take a lesson from Chicago and their great Chicago Fire. Let’s take a tragedy and turn it into an opportunity.
Trader Joe’s IS that opportunity!!
A little information on Trader Joe’s. I work as a commercial real estate agent in Champaign and we have been trying to bring a Trader Joe’s to town for the past four or so years. I will agree with you that it is a great place, that I stop at whenever I see one but the owners have told us that Champaign just does not have the demographics to support one. I’m sorry if this information upsets anyone but will assure you that we will continue to work on bringing this company to Champaign.
I’m more than a little surprised that Trader Joe’s would claim we don’t meet their desired demographics here in Champaign-Urbana. They are on the record in the grocery trade papers as considering their perfect demographic “unemployed PhDs, people with more taste than money”. As a community hosting an enormous faculty & graduate student population, I just don’t buy that as a legitimate reason.