The shelves were full, but there were no customers as Wayne Leone dusted some of the merchandise at his small store, Affordable Leftovers and Flower Shop, on Main Street in West Chicago.
“We’re hopeful business will pick up,” said Leone, who has been forced to dip into personal savings with his wife, Susan, to keep the shop afloat. “It can’t get any worse.”
Just down the street, the newest downtown business, the Sanctuary coffeehouse, has been open barely over a week and business has been as strong as the aroma of coffee on the street, according to proprietors Kim and Mike Czajka.
“We’re optimists. We knew that downtown needed something like what we’re offering,” said Mike Czajka, a lifelong city resident. “It’s a nice-looking downtown.”
The struggles and successes–and, ultimately, the optimism–of business owners like the Czajkas and the Leones are examples of the changes starting to sweep through downtown West Chicago.
Despite the vacant lots and empty storefronts and sidewalks that pervade the area, hope for a renaissance is bubbling downtown. Led by a new city management team, the City Council is pursuing redevelopment plans that call for an expanded train station, national retailers and the possible relocation of City Hall to make the downtown more attractive to shoppers and residents.
“We really want to enhance the appearance of (Illinois) Route 59 and Main Street,” said City Administrator Peter Hurst. “That’s the gateway to downtown.”
The former administrator in south suburban Homewood, Hurst was hired by the City Council less than a year ago and was singled out by Mayor Steven Lakics for his work in helping develop that downtown area. Downtown development has been one of Lakics’ stated major goals.
And that work has begun, particularly in the area of Illinois Highway 59 and Main Street. A Walgreens drugstore and associated shopping plaza will open soon just north of the intersection, and a KFC/Taco Bell combination will open just south.
Just to the west on Main Street, heading toward the downtown core, a former ethnic grocery will become a farmer’s market, and a new grocery is possible in an area vacated by a drugstore and furniture store, Hurst said.
Also in that area, Metra is expected to add 200 parking spaces next year to its 330-space lot just off Main Street, possibly bringing more railroad commuters downtown.
There also is discussion of further expansion that would bring the lot right up to Main, adding more retail possibilities near the station, according to Hurst.
“The ridership on that (train) line is generally going up,” said Frank Malone, a Metra spokesman. “More and more, we see commuter station developments linked to downtown development.”
Directly across from the Metra lot is City Hall, and Hurst said there is sentiment in the city to sell the property and build a more spacious municipal building, making that property available for commercial development.
As for the rest of Main, about 80 regional developers have been contacted, seeking requests for retail/residential proposals, Hurst said, and the city is running an advertisement in Crain’s Chicago Business.
The city also has invited 50 national food and beverage retailers, as well as other industry retailers, to take a look at the downtown.
“We’re going to look for those niche and specialty shops,” Hurst said.
Mary Randle, executive director of the West Chicago Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the timing is right for downtown development.
“People long for a place that they think of as their downtown,” she said, pointing to some of the construction of newer homes within the city, outside of downtown. “There are beautiful, old, historic buildings down there.”
The work of Hurst and his staff is winning praise from much of the downtown business community, which has seen several false starts but no follow-through in trying to revitalize the area.
“We stand totally behind Peter Hurst . . . and we look forward to the long-term projects,” said Diane Haeger, chairwoman of the Downtown Development Commission, an advisory group to the City Council. “I don’t feel like there’s a feeling of giving up on downtown.”
Hurst said that work on downtown redevelopment will intensify because of the hiring of a new community development director, Joanne Gugliotta, and when a new director of economic development is hired in the coming weeks.
While strides are being made, more needs to be done downtown, according to some people, including Wayne Leone. Lack of parking is a common complaint, he said, and more publicity and advertising are necessary to direct people downtown, especially through more civic events.
Mike Czajka said more also needs to be done to break down the ethnic barriers in a city that is about 30 percent Mexican-American. Efforts should be made, he said, to get other West Chicagoans to patronize Mexican-American businesses downtown, and vice versa.
But Czajka and his wife believe it is possible. Otherwise, he said, they would not have come downtown to open their eclectic coffee shop, which features work from local artists, a library and decor similar to a den or living room.
“It seems like people are interested in coming together,” he said. “We need more businesses like this.”
