June 30, 2026 

Nik Duffle, Director of

Economic Development 

As summer gets underway, Normal continues to make progress on initiatives that support community growth, collaboration and improved partnerships.

This month’s Business Brief highlights several efforts underway across the community, including continued advancement of the Trail East and Trail West redevelopment projects, completion of the Town-Gown training cohort with Illinois State University and City of Bloomington, and the relaunch of Notify Normal to provide residents and businesses with improved access to important updates and information.

These initiatives reflect the Town’s ongoing commitment to strategic, thoughtful redevelopment, strengthened partnerships, and providing the tools and resources needed to keep the community connected and informed.

Thank you for reading and for being an important part of Normal’s growing and thriving business community!

The Uptown Design Review Commission convened in June where it heard a proposal for the development of Trail East and Trail West in Uptown Normal.  

The proposed projects, submitted by Carlson Bros., include two six-story mixed-use buildings located on the north side of Uptown Circle and are designed to bring new residential, restaurant, and retail opportunities to Uptown Normal while continuing the vision established through the Uptown Normal redevelopment plans.

Trail East is proposed as a six-story, approximately 203,000-square-foot development featuring first and second floor retail and restaurant space on Uptown Circle, residential units on upper floors, and an attached parking structure. The project includes 132 residential units consisting of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments.

Trail West is proposed as a six-story, approximately 126,000-square-foot mixed-use development featuring residential units, a quick-service restaurant, coffee shop space, and integrated parking.

During the June 26 meeting, the Uptown Design Review Commission tabled action on the designs to allow additional review and discussion of project details, including design elements and required approvals. The development team will continue working through the review process with the Town.

To learn more and to stay up to date on the project, please visit the Trail East & Trail West project page on the Normal Forum.

The Town of Normal re-launched Notify Normal, the Town’s free mass communication system which sends messages via text, email and phone calls about emergencies, road closures, event information and more. 

Notify Normal allows residents and community members to be notified by the Town of Normal in the event of emergency situations and receive information about community events and Town of Normal services.

If you or your business was previously enrolled, you will need to re-enroll as the platform was unable to transfer user preferences.

In addition to emergency alerts, users can choose the type of notifications they wish to receive:

Click the button to sign up for alert or visit the Town's website at normalil.gov/notifynormal. 

The Town recently completed a town-gown training cohort focused on strengthening collaboration between Illinois State University, the Town of Normal, the City of Bloomington and key community partners.

The training provided an opportunity for municipal and university representatives to explore best practices for building stronger town-gown relationships, improving communication, and identifying opportunities for greater alignment between campus and community priorities.

The completion of this cohort represents another step toward building a long-term partnership model that brings together public, private and educational partners to advance initiatives that benefit the entire Bloomington-Normal community.

Normal continued to see strong commercial construction activity throughout June, with the yearly total for commercial investment reaching $14.1 million. 

Key projects from the Town's Open Data Portal highlight last month's building permit activity.