The DeKalb Chamber of Commerce has completed a community guide and city map to attract businesses that target college students.

The chamber spent a year creating the 72-page full-color glossy guide and color map of DeKalb and Sycamore, said Kim Kubiak, the chamber’s executive director, said. The map includes a pull-out section of downtown DeKalb.

The community guide is the first of its kind in DeKalb, she said.

Kubiak said the chamber plans to use the guide to show potential investors what DeKalb has to offer. The chamber will begin approaching businesses with the guide in October.

Currently, the free guides and maps are available at local hotels and restaurants.

The chamber is looking for businesses that will appeal to college students.

“I think it is just smart business,” Kubiak said. “All those dollars that [NIU students] are going back home and spending we would like to keep here on a more permanent basis.”

Kubiak and her staff work closely with the city of DeKalb because the chamber does not have an economic development department, Kubiak said.

Paul Rasmussen, DeKalb community development director, said city representatives attend several annual conferences at which retail chains look for suitable locations.

Rasmussen said he plans to attend a conference this May in Las Vegas, at which he will look for chains interested in communities of 50,000 people or fewer. He will send letters to the chains offering information on DeKalb.

This year the city is focusing on luring industry to the area.

Prime retail spaces on Sycamore Road are being taken up quickly, and industrial businesses generate more property taxes, Rasmussen said.

Currently, only 7 percent of the property tax base is in industrial businesses, Rasmussen said. He would like to see the share increase to 15 percent, he said.

Doubling the percentage would help the school district that currently is stressed by cuts in state funding, he said.

Industrial businesses do not cost the community money as residential developments do because they do not have the same demand for city services like police protection.

DeKalb City Manager Mark Biernacki said he expects an announcement of a new warehouse distribution center in Park 88 in the next few months.