Starting more than a year ago as a plan to revitalize Waukegan’s aging streets, sidewalks and sewers, Mayor Sam Cunningham’s Rebuild Waukegan campaign has evolved into a way to help individuals restore their homes and motivate private developers to do projects in the city.
As he campaigned in early 2025 to regain the job he lost in the 2021 mayoral election, Cunningham listened to what people had to say about the city. He heard positive comments but also a lot of negative ones, too.
“Residents and businesses said the city wasn’t aesthetically pleasing,” he said. “As I looked at the stretches of streets that needed paving, I had to agree it was not. The old served its purpose, but we had to rebuild for tomorrow.”
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Deciding to fix the city’s roads starting with Washington Street, Grand Avenue and Belvidere Road, Cunningham learned from the city’s Public Works Department that redoing roads required a deeper look.
“They told me you’ve got to fix what’s underneath the roads if you’re going to fix the roads,” the mayor said, referring to the water and sewer infrastructure.
After spending $4.8 million on roadwork and other infrastructure in the fiscal year ending April 30, as well as $400,000 for the Community Development Block Grant program for individual home improvement, Rebuild Waukegan anticipates more growth in the fiscal year that started on May 1.
The Rebuild Waukegan program has budgeted $62.8 million for city improvements, $400,000 for home improvement, and private developers are adding their own projects to the program, including two major multiuse buildings in downtown Waukegan through next May and beyond.
With signs reading “Rebuild Waukegan” posted around the city, the phrase is becoming part of the conversation among residents. During the Aug. 3 City Council meeting, two members of the public used it while advocating for issuing a liquor license to The Twisted Diner, which opens next month.
Former Waukegan Community Unit School District Board of Education President Brandon Ewing said storefronts “vacant for years” becoming the home of small businesses is part of Rebuilding Waukegan. Andrew Gadsden said it restores the community feel of his youth.
“When I hear the phrase ‘Rebuild Waukegan,’ my mind goes back to growing up here in the ’80s,” Gadsden said at the meeting. “It was full of Black families, Hispanic families, white families and people from all kinds of backgrounds.”
The city’s Community Development Block Grant program has long provided funding to enable residents and businesses to make repairs and upgrades to their properties, including individual homes.
Laraesa Garland, the director of the block grant program, said funding has long come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. With the cost-cutting in Washington for more than a year, certainty was necessary.
Garland suggested improving people’s homes is part of Rebuild Waukegan. Cunningham agreed, and $400,000 was allocated in the last fiscal year, and another $400,000 for the current fiscal year.
“At least half the money goes to homeowners to improve their homes,” Garland said. “We’re seeing homes restored. It beautifies the entire neighborhood. It’s now part of our rebuilding message.”
Though the use of tax increment financing (TIF) predates Rebuild Waukegan, it spurred two downtown redevelopment projects. TIF money is paving the way for the renovation of the Waukegan Building at the southwest corner of Washington and Genesee streets and new construction of a mixed-use project at the southeast corner of County and Clayton streets.
When the Greater Waukegan Development Partnership asked for help putting 700 new residences and 700,000 square feet of commercial space downtown, the city suggested starting with something smaller.
City officials said the group should start with a mixed-use building at 38 North Genesee and the former YMCA at County and Clayton streets. If performance standards are met, the group can receive as much as $1.7 million in TIF money.
As the former YMCA nears completion, Lowell Jaffe, the partnership’s lead partner, said when the project is complete, his group will announce its plans for the eight-story Waukegan Building.
Cunningham said a proposed new mixed-use residential and commercial building at the southeast corner of Clayton and County streets fits the description of his Rebuild Waukegan vision. The city is working with a developer for a project on city-owned land.
“We expect to have a development agreement by early fall,” Cunningham said.
Another Waukegan high-rise building — the 14-story apartment house at the northwest corner of Washington and Sheridan Road — is now adding more expensive market-rate dwellings to its mix of units.
Long a building for subsidized housing, Cunningham said when the city recently provided parking spaces in a city-owned lot across the street, the building became a more desirable address.
Another part of Rebuild Waukegan is upgrading the water plant. Cunningham said more than $100 million has been spent since 2017. Not only will the additional work over the next few years keep residents getting quality Lake Michigan water, but it is also a potential revenue source.
“Water is to northeast Lake County what oil is to America,” Cunningham said. “We want to sell water to our neighbors to the west. Our goal is to have the highest quality water.”
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