Work at the CTA Dempster Street station in Evanston. Photo: Jaysin Trevino from Evanston, IL, US / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Heartwood Center, the holistic health business at 1818 Dempster St., planned to open a new addition called Skylight with a ribbon-cutting on Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. The expansion gives the center more usable space on a corner of West Evanston that has been working to attract investment.
Owner Nancy Floy was set to lead the ceremony, according to the Daily Northwestern. The addition followed a rough stretch for the business. A tenant had moved out of a warehouse next to the center in June 2012, taking away a dependable source of rent. Putting that space to work for Heartwood’s own programs was one way of answering the loss. Evanston Now reported that the project was supported in part by a $100,000 loan from the city’s West Evanston tax increment financing district.
The corner around it
Heartwood sits at Dempster Street and Dodge Avenue, in a stretch the city has long treated as a redevelopment priority. The nearby Evanston Plaza shopping center had recently been renovated, with Valli Produce as a grocery tenant and Dance Center Evanston among its other businesses. Together with Heartwood, they gave the corner a mix centered on recreation, wellness and food.
Heartwood itself opened in 1999 and offers yoga, massage therapy and other wellness services, the Daily Northwestern has reported.
How tax increment money works
Tax increment financing districts set aside growth in property tax revenue within a defined area for a set period, and the city can lend or grant that money for improvements there. West Evanston’s district, created to help the Dempster and Dodge area, was the source of the Heartwood loan. Supporters see it as a way to steer private projects toward blocks that would otherwise wait. Critics point out that the money would otherwise go to schools and other taxing bodies. The Heartwood project fit the first argument: a locally owned business growing in place, adding space at a commercial corner that needed activity.
The expansion was modest next to the large projects discussed downtown, but for West Evanston it signaled a business choosing to invest in the neighborhood.
Heartwood is one of several wellness and recreation businesses along this part of Dempster, and a business that grows in place keeps its customers, instructors and practitioners coming to the same address.
Sources: The Daily Northwestern and Evanston Now.
Margaret Whitfield is the editor of The Evanston Edge and covers local government, development and neighborhoods.
