how can i bring some of the innovative people from chicago to my town?

im in a small rural town of freeport just outside of rockford. i have a large building here (four stories, five including the basement which has 10ft ceilings). it use to be a hall back in the day. its a farm town community so all they are use to is knocking buildings down... but daily i read about chicago restoring or even moving buildings to be fixed up. what local success stories have captured you that i may be able to attempt on my 100 year old 30,000 sqft building that i want to save? i have even thought about renting space inside the building for photographers to do one time photoshoots. the building needs about $100,000 worth of work to button it up but its quite a grand space... and its my passion to fix it