DANVILLE — Aurum Developments LLC, an Orlando-headquartered development and construction firm, has chosen downtown Danville for its Midwest headquarters.
According to a release, the firm has opened at 57 N. Vermilion St., and is partnering with ZDE Capital Group, a capital and real estate investment firm, to put private money and construction capacity behind the storefronts along Vermilion Street.
The two companies will host a public open house at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 3, timed to the Downtown Carnival a block north at 102 N. Vermilion St. The announcement is made in coordination with Downtown Danville, Inc.
According to the release, the choice of Danville was deliberate. Most development capital chases the biggest city on the map. Aurum went the other way. Its founders are rooted here, and they built the company to invest where they actually live — in a place where a single finished project moves the needle, where local relationships still mean something, and where the dollars put to work stay in the community instead of leaving it.
“I’ve lived here long enough to remember when downtown was a place you drove through, not to. It’s taken years, but this town is finally turning a corner — new businesses opening, a real plan from the City, people betting on Danville again. We could have set up shop in a bigger city. We chose to put our Midwest headquarters right here on Vermilion Street, because this is home — and because every dollar we put to work here stays here,” said Colton Z. Morris, co-owner and operator of Aurum Developments LLC
Aurum is not trying to recreate some bygone version of Danville — it is investing in the one being built right now. The City adopted a downtown revitalization plan in 2024 and has committed millions in public dollars to the core, while new shops and restaurants continue to open along Vermilion Street, near the historic Fischer Theatre and the downtown murals. Aurum’s role is to bring the private capital, general construction, and new-build capacity that turn that public groundwork into finished, occupied space — faster.
An end-to-end model for local entrepreneurs. The firm is built to remove the barriers that keep good ideas from opening their doors. Aurum partners with local entrepreneurs who have a strong concept but don’t know where or how to start, offering everything from funding the deal to the full setup — financing and complete build-out of a new location. Its work spans retail redesign and tenant build-outs of vacant downtown storefronts, general construction, and new-build construction.
The capital partner. ZDE Capital Group supplies the investment engine behind the effort. Focused on capital and real estate investment, ZDE is led by owner Zack Edwards — a Bismarck native who returned home to invest in the Danville area — and connects a network of outside investors directly to local opportunities.
“I came back home to put real money to work in the place that raised me,’’ Edwards said. “The investors we work with are genuinely excited about where Danville is headed, and they want to build it hand in hand with the people who live here. Paired with Aurum’s ability to actually deliver the construction, we can move on opportunities most outside money walks right past.”
Aurum and ZDE invite residents, business owners, property owners, and prospective partners to the new headquarters at 57 N. Vermilion St. at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 3 for an open house.