Redevelopment plans for downtown Janesville get a big boost from private donors. Jane Blain and Mick Gilbertson are giving $1 million toward the vision of revitalizing the city’s center. A $1 million donation from the Janesville Foundation was also announced before a crowd of more than 300 during the Rock Regional Business Expo Luncheon today at the Pontiac Convention Center. The group, which is raising money through Forward Janesville’s pass-through fund, the Forward Foundation, last week announced that by the end of 2017, it could be about halfway to its goal of $10 million in private funding for ARISE projects. Projects the group will work on first will be in tandem with a Town Square project underway on the west side of the Rock River between Milwaukee and Court Streets. The group intends to mesh projects alongside city revitalization downtown over the next five years.
