NORMAL - The chaos in the financial market has forced work on Uptown One to stop temporarily but developers say they still are committed to the project and hope the delay will only set it back a few months. | Area grain elevators implement price protection after vote | Central Illinois reacts | Video: What do you think?

"Our belief in Normal is so strong that despite everything that has happened … we'll weather this storm," said Jon "Cody" Sokolski, chief executive officer of One Main Development, the Champaign firm developing the mixed-use building.

Sokolski said the company also is continuing with plans for two more mixed-use buildings - Uptown Two and Uptown Three - that will flank the roundabout. Designs for those buildings are complete, he said, and options built into the plan will avoid the financial problems that have affected Uptown One.

One Main had financing lined up for the $34 million project when ground was broken a year ago, but One Main President Mike Royse said lenders now require the pre-sale of all 34 condominiums before they will provide funding for the rest of the project.

"The feds and investors for banks no longer trust banks to judge if a developer has the market for the condos," said Royse.

Royse said there is more than enough interest in the condominiums, planned on the upper floors of the building, but most people own another home and would need to sell before committing to a condo.

"The market is volatile," said Sokolski, so sellers are wondering when their house will be sold.

Royse said the company plans to continue selling the condos and "believe if things go like they're going, after the first of the year we'll begin construction again and finish not far off schedule."

Originally, One Main hoped to complete the project next summer. Under the new plan, it would hopefully finish by the end of 2009, Royse said. The foundation and some underground work already is done.

"We're ahead on commercial leasing - it's better than we guessed in the beginning," he said, adding the company is near announcing a couple of restaurants that plan to occupy some of the retail space.

Because One Main has a redevelopment agreement with the town, Sokolski said he has kept city officials abreast of the situation.

City Manager Mark Peterson said a few months' delay won't cause a problem but he would be "disappointed to see a long-term delay."

"It's bloody obvious the national economy is in a crisis, particularly the lending industry," he said. "It's changed dramatically in the past six months and now daily. The good news is that One Main has every intention to move forward."

The town has committed to giving $4.5 million in land to One Main. The developers also will get 60 percent of the property, sales and food and beverage taxes the property and businesses generate until 2027 when the uptown tax increment financing district expires.

Sokolski also has invested $3 million of his own money in the project.