Being conservative has helped Glen Ellyn face three years of what Assistant Village Manager Curt Barrett called “the triple whammy: lower sales tax, lower state income tax and a lower return on investments.”
Now officials are beginning to see a slight upturn in sales tax. Developments are signs of hope on the north and south ends of the business district. And retailers have pooled dollars and efforts toward a new marketing concept to draw shoppers, called Glen Ellyn Style. Some new shops are coming in as well.
But the village will continue to be financially conservative, Barrett said.
“Being careful has put us in the position where we haven’t had to take some steps that other villages have had to take, such as increasing taxes,” he said.
Glen Ellyn is the leanest municipal organization in DuPage County with the lowest ratio of employees per residents for any community its size, Barrett said.
“We have kept expenses in check. Last year’s budget and this year’s are almost identical and in the last fiscal year [ending April 30] we came in under budget,” he said.
“We have had to eliminate a couple of staff positions [from 114 to 112 full time] and spread out the timeline on some of our work.”
The village is proud it never has had to use tax-increment financing, which freezes property taxes in an area to aid redevelopment.
“I think the TIF has come to be a more commonplace redevelopment tool,” Barrett said. “But we have not used one, and that reflects well on how we do businesses. Our village has kept itself on a strong footing.”
Janie Patch, executive director of the Glen Ellyn Economic Development Corp., is encouraged by planned development at Roosevelt Road and Nicoll Way, where 4 acres on the northwest corner and 3 acres on the southwest corner are in early planning stages.
The Five Corners plan
On the north end of town, plans are under way for the reconstruction of the historic but congested Five Corners intersection: Main Street, which runs north and south; Geneva Road, which runs east and west but dead-ends at the intersection; and St. Charles Road, which runs northwest and southeast and turns east at the intersection.
The biggest issue is not traffic volume but the delays caused by the way the traffic signals have to be set up for safety, said Chuck Tokarski, engineer for the DuPage County Division of Transportation.
After construction, traffic that used to go south on Bloomingdale Road, which is less than a mile west of Main, now will be directed east on Geneva instead of St. Charles. And St. Charles will become one-way westbound to essentially Stacy Court, a very short block west of Main, Tokarski said. St. Charles will remain a two-way road west of Stacy.
Burying utility lines is scheduled for fall, Tokarski said. The county intends to begin the $1.5 million to $2 million road construction project in the spring.
The village then will follow with streetscape improvements such as decorative lighting, brickwork and benches.
A new Walgreens, designed to compliment the historic nature of the Five Corners area, has opened on the north side of the intersection.
In addition, the Glen Ellyn Historical Society will take their fundraising campaign to the public this fall, hoping to acquire land from St. Charles Road south to Elm Street for a history park on the west side of Main.
Bill Peterson, president of the historical society, said $2.4 million has been pledged or received toward the $4 million goal. The park will include:
– Stacy’s Tavern, the 1846 building that originally was a stagecoach stop on the Chicago-Galena route. It has been restored on its original site and is now the Stacy’s Tavern Museum, operated and supported by the historical society in partnership with the village.
– The reconstruction of Yalding House, one of Glen Ellyn’s earliest homes on Hill Avenue that was dismantled and put in storage to save it.
– A pavilion that will be a re-creation of the 3 1/2-story Five Springs Pavilion that was located at Chidester Avenue and Riford Road and home to five mineral springs in the late 1800s.
– Period gardens and orchards.
The society owns three of the six parcels of land, including the building at 800 N. Main that houses the Glen Ellyn History Center.
“The development of this area has been long in coming,” Peterson said.
“This area has a lot of potential to be a hub that has a historic focus. It is the northern gateway to the village of Glen Ellyn, and it’s been an eyesore for years.”
Although many may still refer to it as Five Corners, Peterson said he “wouldn’t be surprised if the society doesn’t eventually attempt to change the name to Stacy’s Corners as this progresses.”
New stores on the way
The Economic Development Corp. is encouraged both by the planned developments downtown and the shops opening there, including a Cold Stone Creamery that will open soon at 550 Crescent Blvd., Patch said.
“The biggest blow to the downtown was when Daffy Down Dilly [a home-decor and gift shop] with 5,100 square feet of prominent retail space closed,” she said. “They were at a very prominent location along Main, and I think because they had such a history here, it hit hard.”
The shop closed in April after 34 years.
But last month it was announced the vacancy would be filled by Al and Ginger Haffar, owners of Antiques on the Avenue, an antique mall at 535 Pennsylvania Ave.
This fall the Haffars will open Villa Bianca (Italian for “White House”), selling European home furnishing, accessories and gifts. Haffar Interiors, a design service, will move from the couple’s Wheaton home studio to the building’s second floor.
“Our design client base is from all over Chicagoland,” Ginger Haffar said. “I think the Glen Ellyn market is looking great. We have been on the Glen Ellyn Style committee. I feel we can all help each other in this town.”
Adding Style
The Glen Ellyn Style marketing campaign was launched last September by a committee of retailers and was funded in part by the village, the Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corp.
Glen Ellyn Style banners fly through the downtown and along Roosevelt Road, but it’s about more than banners, said Debra Benden Williams, who sells tableware and gifts in her store, Benden Williams, 490 N. Main St.
“The economic times, post 9-11, the war–there are many things we can’t do much about. What we can do is work to boost our own businesses,” Benden Williams said.
Two years ago, she gathered a group of retailers to discuss business and now a core group of about 10 attend weekly meetings. They came up with the Glen Ellyn Style marketing concept, which 38 retailers now use.
The logo and banners were designed by Glen Ellyn’s David Prickett of Karnes Prickett Design Inc., 526 Crescent.
Business owners are not only united by this uniform advertising style, but also make business-owner pledges such as not to park on Main Street or in front of someone else’s business.
They support each other, Benden Williams said. “You can have all kinds of beautiful hoopla, but if you don’t back it up with how you conduct yourself, you’ll get people in the store but you won’t get them back,” she said.
“Business has improved over the past two years, but it is not the robust, vital, prosperous climate of 5 to 10 years ago,” she said. “We all feel it will be here again, and we are better off with the Glen Ellyn Style than we would have been without it.”
Doug Samuels is the president of Young’s Appliances, 500 Crescent, which has been in downtown Glen Ellyn since 1931.
“Business could always be better,” said Samuels, who also is on the Glen Ellyn Style committee.
But he thinks efforts by the chamber and the Economic Development Corp. will move the focus back to downtown Glen Ellyn from other nearby communities.
“I think the Glen Ellyn Style is a good effort to get everybody with all their oars in the water at the same time,” Samuels said. “I think it’s important that we are not just neighbors but co-marketers.”
Luring shoppers downtown
Over the years Glen Ellyn has built a reputation on its home-decor retailers with what the Economic Development Corp. calls 30 “Decorating Diva” stores dealing in antiques, appliances, custom framing, accessories, furnishings and design.
The town also is known for numerous children’s apparel stores and restaurants, including 19 downtown.
Residents appreciate their hidden gem but the key to business is getting the word out to people in other communities, Patch said.
Shop owners and village officials agree the town needs more entertainment and special events to draw shoppers downtown.
The effort began with Girl’s Night Out events. At the last one, held in June, 28 shops opened in the evening with specials, raffles and donations to Family Shelter Service in Wheaton, which works with victims of domestic violence.
The next Girl’s Night Out is scheduled for Sept. 9, and Family Shelter Service again will be the beneficiary.
The Economic Development Corp. also is designing a pedestrian-friendly kiosk that will be on the east side of Main, close to the intersection of Main and Crescent. The kiosk, which will give shoppers and diners an index and map to village businesses, is expected to be in place by the holiday shopping season.
As other towns whose downtowns grew up around commuter train stops, Glen Ellyn has worked to create downtown residential units.
Over the last five years two large mixed-use retail/condominium developments were built.
Work on The Mews of In-Town Glen Ellyn, a new townhouse/condo development on Pennsylvania Avenue, is scheduled to begin shortly with demolition of the existing building and ground-breaking.
Other projects
– The village nears completion on the $57 million streets and sewers project started in 2001. Voters in 2001 approved $18 million in taxpayer-funded bonds to be used for the project, Barrett said. The largest and 16th of the 17 projects is under way on the east side of town.
– Village officials continue to discuss an anonymous $2 million gift received in 2001 and earmarked for three purposes: clarifying Lake Ellyn, burying utility lines at prominent village locations, and improving entryways to the village. Some of the utility-line work has been done and the village is studying the methods and costs of clarifying the lake. New entryways signs are being produced and should be erected by fall, except for the Five Corners area where more prominent signs will follow when the county’s work is done, Barrett said.
