Wauconda's downtown, lake are its biggest assets

As part of an ongoing project, the Daily Herald asked local business and village leaders about what kind of economic development projects were on the way in their communities.

Here are the answers from Wauconda Mayor Mark Knigge.

Q. How do you go about supporting business development in your community?

A. One of our campaign issues that we brought up was obviously economic development and we established an economic development department (since taking office, within the past few months). Along with that, we've established an advisory group of local business people who are just beginning to meet here to put together different ways to reach out to our local businesses, more networking. These people are in the business world so they're going to tell us what we can do in the village to reach out to our current businesses and attract new businesses in our town.

We just opened up a new wine shop in town and we're hoping that type of specialty shop will really catch on in our downtown, so we're really trying to develop more of a hands-on approach and network with them, so that's what we're doing right now. The advisory group is going to be really important to bringing new businesses in and working with current businesses.

Q. What is currently in the works (ground has been broken or will be in the next couple months)?

A. We are close to completion of a Chase Bank on Route 176 across from Jewel plaza. It used to be a small bank in a strip mall, now it's a new, stand-alone business. For us it's a big deal because really not a whole lot of capital is being spent for new buildings right now.

Docks Restaurant has put in a huge deck system, which I think is going to be a huge way to draw people into town. I was just there for lunch. It's a big asset for drawing people in from the lake.

That and the new wine shop. Bliss Wine Shop. It's a very classy store. They sell wine and offer wine tastings. There's art in the back and art students from the high school are painting murals.

Q. What is in the planning stages?

A. Long term we have developers and investors coming into town all the time investigating possibilities. Parcels of land are available but nothing concrete at the moment. That's what we're trying to do with the economic development department is set groundwork for when things open up again. We're trying to be shovel-ready for investors as they look at Wauconda to bring their businesses. It's very important to retain businesses we have, so we're working closely with all the businesses in town.

Q. What is your town's biggest economic development wish?

A. We would like to see more development in our downtown, coupling that with our lake. Downtown and the lake are our two biggest assets. We have our big box, which is a Dominick's that has been empty for years, so we're trying aggressively to get that filled. A new real estate company bought that so hopefully we can get that filled and develop West part of town that's been vacant for years.

Q. What is your community's single greatest asset or selling point to potential developers?

A. Our downtown. Our lake is a huge asset. Two-thirds of our community is surrounded by forest preserve. As development begins again, we have open space already in place.

Q. Have the challenges presented by the current downtown forced you and your community to approach economic development differently? What are the changes and how well are they working?

A. Obviously you have to be much more innovative now. I believe we have to be aggressive, hands-on and network more than we have in the past. Bringing on community-based support with the advisory committee is something we haven't tried before. Economic development department, we've never had that before and we're attempting to really make that a full-time effort and strategic planning. Strategic planning we've never done that before, goal setting, concentrate on what we're trying to do to, which is bring businesses in town and keep the old businesses.