Business Climate

This report contains an in-depth look at the following topics: background and history of downtown Aurora, transportation and circulation, built environment, economy and jobs, health and safety, natural environment, arts and community services. There is also an overview of community outreach conducted to date and the direction of potential recommendations to be pursued in the development of the master plan. 

WalletHub’s analysts compared 150 of the largest cities according to how well they are managed by their leaders. In order to make such a comparison, they examined each city’s performance on six key indicators, including financial stability, education, health, safety, economy as well as infrastructure and pollution. Then they combined these categories to construct an “Overall City Services” ranking against which we measured the cities’ total per-capita budgets in order to reveal their budgeting efficiency. WalletHub

Overall City Services’ Rank - 24, Score - 63.73

Total Budget per Capita Rank - 21

Financial Stability Rank - 90

Education Rank - 36

Health Rank - 93

Safety Rank - 5

Economy Rank - 57

Infrastructure & Pollution Rank - 87

Whether visiting Chicago Premium Outlets, Fox Valley Mall, or the historic downtown, shoppers will surely find what they are looking for in Aurora. They can drive, bike, walk, or paddle to the downtown shopping district with amazing architecture, award-winning theaters, culinary treasures, one-of-a-kind shopping, galleries, museums, casino and riverside dining. Aurora ranks #1 in retail sales of Chicago's suburban mall retail corridors, #1 for greatest increase in Drinking & Eating Place sales, and #3 in Apparel & Accessories sales.

OnLight Aurora provides access to a robust, highly available metro ethernet network and the Internet to advance economic development opportunity and the community support business growth requires. The fourth utility is alive and thriving in Aurora, Illinois!  This fiber optic based, redundant and self-healing network began as support for the second largest city in Illinois municipal needs and continues to grow. 

Warehouse and distribution centers are a major part of the economy; with the surge of office and industrial park construction during the 1980s and 1990s, Aurora has become a major distribution channel for auto parts, dry goods, construction equipment, and industrial gases. Items and goods produced: construction machinery, steel products, tools, office and retail shelving, protective coatings, electronics.

Heavy industry helped build Aurora, with the Fox River being used for power to run saw and textile mills. As the Industrial Revolution progressed and the railroad came to town, Aurora became a manufacturer of railroad cars, including some of the first dining cars built in the United States. Some heavy industry remains in Aurora today with the Caterpillar plant, which produces construction machinery; in total, the Fox Valley Industrial Association lists more than 150 manufacturers in the area.