CHAMPAIGN – For years, Champaign's JSM Development has been trying to lure a large, national apparel chain to Campustown.

Finally, JSM says, it's scored – and scored big – by signing a lease with Urban Outfitters, a chain the Campustown developer has been courting for seven years, says JSM Director of Development Jill Guth.

The space Urban Outfitters will call home in Champaign will be the first two floors of a new seven-story building at 507 E. Green St., Guth said.

The upper five floors of the new building will be offices, with the University of Illinois committed to taking a large portion of the space, and some additional office space for other tenants, she said.

Some work is already under way at the construction site, which is a former parking lot located just east of JSM's building at 505 E. Green St. that houses Cold Stone Creamery and National City Bank, Guth said.

Plans are to have the building completed by early next summer, she said.

Urban Outfitters, which will fill up 12,000 square feet with its men's and women's clothing, home furnishings catering to young apartment dwellers, shoes and accessories, is set to open next August, she added.

Guth said Urban Outfitters is a top apparel chain sought by retail space developers in university communities, and it's the No. 1 store local college students have wanted to see in the community.

"I think the kids will go crazy," she said.

How does JSM, a developer of apartments, offices and retail space, know what store students wish for?

"We have 2,000 students who rent from us," Guth said. "We take every opportunity we can to talk to them."

Try as JSM did to interest Urban Outfitters in Campustown in recent years, the company wasn't easily persuaded that Champaign-Urbana was a place it wanted to be, Guth said.

"They only have seven stores in Illinois, and they're all in Chicago," she added.

Guth said Urban Outfitters changed its mind about Champaign about a year ago, and she thinks improvements to the look of Campustown in recent years was a big factor.

What's more, she said, she thinks Urban Outfitters has the potential to lure more shoppers from the community to Campustown, and it can draw other national apparel retailers to the campus area.

"It's just a tremendous addition to campus," Guth said. "We're really excited."

Urban Outfitters, which caters to teens and young adults, has 107 stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe. It is owned by the same company that owns Anthropologie, a chain of apparel stores that cater to women in their 30s and 40s.

JSM Developments has another retail, office and apartment project under development – the five-story Gregory Place East on the east side of campus.

The company also owns more than 850 student apartments near the university and 200,000 square feet of commercial space in Champaign-Urbana.