Congressman Sean Casten spent a good chunk of National Small Business Week walking around communities and talking with downtown business owners in the 6th District.
On May 8, he had a chance to pick the brains of business owners in LaGrange, which some people think has a successful downtown area.
“So much of the viability of downtowns seems to be based on decisions made 20 years ago,” he said. “What causes this downtown to work and that downtown not to work?
“You look at the diversity of businesses in LaGrange and the viability of the downtown area. People want to come here. I think LaGrange has done as good of a job as any town. You look at some towns that struggle and you wonder ‘What is LaGrange doing well?’’’
LaGrange’s downtown area – which is filled with small and locally owned businesses – may be working and doing well, but there are still plenty of hurdles and problems facing small business owners in the village.
Casten conducted a roundtable discussion with owners and community leaders at the Remi Event Venue and then walked the downtown area.
LaGrange Mayor Mark Kuchler said that one of the ways to keep downtown viable is to insist the makeup of the first floor in buildings in the central business district is consumer friendly.
“Right now, on the first floor you need to be either retail or a restaurant,” he said. “I argued that if we don’t keep retail and restaurants mandatory, the Dulys will come in, the lawyers will come in and State Farm agents will come in.
“It will force out retail. We stand to lose that. We’re not subsidizing retail, but right now we are requiring the landlord to rent to retail or a restaurant.”
There is some opposition to that theory but the village president remains steadfast in his beliefs.
“We shouldn’t change the rules or it will change the character of our downtown,” Kuchler said.
One of the downtown success stories over the last few years is the Wooden Paddle restaurant, which is on the first floor under the Remi Event Venue.
Jonathan Cowan, who owns both, said a huge concern for business owners is the rising cost of rent and the possibility of landlords kicking owners out of the building when the contract expires.
Cowan is able to navigate around that by owning the building, but that brings up a whole new set of headaches.
“I wanted to be a landlord because I can control it,” Cowan said. “Now I’m scared as a business owner seeing the property taxes in Illinois just go out of control.
“How do you pay rent, when the landlord is paying these new property taxes?”
He said he was socked with two huge property bills in his first year of operation in 2025.
“They were gut punches,” he said.
Susan McMillan, owner of Jack’s West End Garments and Gifts, hopes that the federal government can provide some help for struggling business owners who are getting squeezed out.
“What do people want to see in a downtown and why doesn’t it work?” she asked. “Everybody wants a bookstore but a lot of times I buy books wholesale at the bookstore and can probably buy them cheaper on Amazon than to buy them from my wholesale distributor.
“But I want these things in the store. People want a bookstore. People want a record store. Do you provide subsidies for small businesses like you provide for corn or something? We know that brick and mortar is really important to the value of a downtown. It makes people feel good about the town that they live in and want to live there and invest in that place.”
She said government can go two ways on this.
“Do you say ‘this is an endangered species’ and try to protect it or do we say ‘it’s survival of the fittest’ and let it die off and just have restaurants? I don’t know,” she said.
Stefanie Posey of Posey Law and a member of the LaGrange Business Association, has concerns about the smallest of small businesses.
“A lot of the businesses I work with – I call them microbusinesses – are outside what we traditionally know as small businesses. It’s really, really hard for them to access capital,” she said. “All businesses, I believe, hit certain ceilings.
“Most of the businesses – I think the statistic is like 80% — are under $1 million in revenue and can’t access capital.”
Posey said some of them need small loans to keep going and banks are not willing to give them, citing that they are high risk.
“Some days you want to flip a table and quit,” she said.
Posey also said AI can help generate data that can suggest a certain business can be a “safe bet” for the banks.
Casten said he is hoping that an ecosystem can be created and new banks and lenders can change their opinions on small businesses being high risks.