About

ABOUT US

The Champaign Center Partnership is a membership-based business organization providing marketing and promotion opportunities for our members as well as opportunities for collaboration, education, and networking. We now offer a residential membership component, where residents can become members to receive priority access to events, exclusive deals from member businesses, and information about our districts. See our members here. Our organization includes the districts of Downtown, Campustown, and the central commercial area along University Avenue and First Street known as Midtown. These districts are collectively known as Champaign Center.

OUR MISSION

The mission of the Champaign Center Partnership is to foster a vibrant, inviting, and active core Downtown, Midtown, and Campustown by strengthening business and building community.

Our vision is to create healthy and vibrant micro-urban areas for our residents and visitors through marketing, advocacy, and special events.

We encourage and educate the public to shop locally throughout the year. When you spend $100 at a locally-owned business, $68 stays in your community.

CULTIVATE CHAMPAIGN CENTER

Cultivate Champaign Center is a 3-year strategic visionary guide that will elevate the organization to meet the needs of a dynamic city center. The next three years represent a transitional period for a relatively young organization with a sights set on expanding special services while also maintain current operations. In so doing, the CCP will be positioned to create a better sense of place by utilizing public spaces, assisting with business retention and attraction, and helping to ensure economic and community vitality in Champaign’s city center. Cultivate Champaign Center was approved by the CCP board of directors in June 2022.

Membership

OUR HISTORY

We are a 501(c)6 organization founded in 2010 through a merger of the Champaign Downtown Association and the Campustown Business Group. The partnership between the two historic commercial centers of the community opened a new chapter in joint marketing and cooperation between the areas.

Our Membership

To learn more about membership benefits and how to become a member, click here. To see what our members are saying about us, click here. Read the highlights report from our FY2022 Annual Meeting Celebration here.

MEET OUR STAFF

XANDER HAZEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
director@champaigncenter.com
217-352-2400

Alexander “Xander” Hazel joined the Champaign Center Partnership in March 2020 as Executive Director… and then the pandemic happened. Originally from an incredibly rural town in Indiana, he completed his bachelor’s degree at Earlham College in Richmond, IN, and earned a master’s degree in entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Xander has several years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector where he has held positions as the events & engagement coordinator and eventually acting executive director at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign, IL, secretary of the board for the Champaign Center Partnership, co-chair for the Champaign-Urbana chapter of the Emerging Museum Professionals, and stewards council co-chair for the Graduate Employees’ Organization AFT/IFT 6300. He is excited to bring a fresh, data-driven perspective to propel the CCP forward. In 2022, Xander received The Outstanding Young Persons of Illinois Award from the Illinois Jaycees. Xander proudly serves on the Champaign County Bike Month Committee and Uniting Pride of Champaign County Outreach Committee

Xander has called Champaign home since 2014. He lives near downtown with backyard hens and beagle, Annie. He enjoys the diverse cultures, entertainment, and easy-living that the CU community has to offer. For instance, you may encounter him at many of his favorite bars and restaurants, riding his bike, or camping in many of natural areas throughout the Midwest.

JENNA MANOLAKES, MARKETING AND EVENTS COORDINATOR

coordinator@champaigncenter.com

Jenna Manolakes joined the Champaign Center Partnership as the Marketing and Events Coordinator in September 2021. She is originally from Champaign but decided to give a different U of I a try and received her bachelors degree in creative writing from the University of Illinois in Chicago.

While in Chicago Jenna combined her love of theater and event planning and began marketing the shows she would perform in across the city. Soon she moved to Nashville, TN where she worked as a marketing and events coordinator as well as an artist representative in the thriving music industry. In Nashville, Jenna met and married her husband and eventually returned to Champaign.

Since coming back to Illinois, Jenna coordinated The Homer Soda Festival in 2017 before stepping in as the activities director at an assisted living facility. In that position she worked heavily in both marketing and in house event planning. Recently Jenna joined RE/MAX Choice as a broker where she is able to use her love of marketing to help clients find their dream home.

When Jenna is not working you can find her spending time with her husband and her newborn daughter. Jenna can’t wait to bring her passion for events and marketing to the eclectic events going on in Champaign!