Carry on past the coffee bar that greets visitors at the entrance of SPACE 519’s Wilmette location and you find yourself in a chic boutique with the latest European and American designer fashions on display.
Take a left instead, and you’re in a softly lit alcove with chrome-rimmed tables lined up against a wall of maroon leather bench seating. Above that appears a painted fresco of the North Shore’s various attractions, from Lake Michigan to the house from “Home Alone.” Ornate gold leaf fixtures and distressed mirrors line adjacent walls.
“We wanted it to feel as if it had been here in the 1920s when the shopping center opened,” co-owner Lance Lawson said. “So it feels much more like an old, European hotel.”
SPACE 519’s new location is among the latest in a string of upscale businesses to open at Plaza Del Lago in recent months. The historic Wilmette shopping center is bringing in new retailers and restaurateurs as part of a major revitalization.
Some of those upper-echelon designers and retailers have opened, including Lilly Pulitzer and Veronica Beard in addition to SPACE 519. Others, such as Oscar de la Renta and Peter Millar, are expected to open in the spring, according to both Lawson and Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman.
Lawson said the future location of French luxury brand Hermès has decals in the windows saying it will open this summer.
Braiman noted designer Thom Browne and retailer Lola + The Boys are also slated, but did not have anticipated opening dates.
A restaurant, The Henry, is also expected to open in the summer.
So far, it’s going well for SPACE 519, which opened its doors in August.
“We had a very solid holiday season, and we’re ahead of our revenue plan,” Lawson said.
Plaza Del Lago has undergone significant change since Boston-based WS Development purchased the 100,000-foot shopping center in June 2022.
Longtime local businesses like Yellowbird Stationery, Hanig’s Footwear, and Chantilly Lace left the shopping center for downtown Wilmette, with upscale national brands like Rag and Bone and LoveShackFancy taking their place.
In an emailed statement, representatives from WS Development wrote that the developer wants to cultivate a “refined yet welcoming lakefront destination” for shoppers.
“Curation has focused on brands and experiences that feel authentic to the North Shore and will serve the community for years to come,” the statement read.
Lawson says representatives from WS Development approached him and his husband and co-owner, Jim Wetzel, to see if they’d be interested in expanding their downtown boutique to one of the city’s most affluent suburbs.
The couple have imported many features of their Gold Coast location, including a curated selection of women’s designer clothing, a perfume counter, and an eatery, The Lunchroom, serving breakfast, lunch and brunch akin to historic department store tea rooms like Marshall Field’s Walnut Room.
“We serve a lot of functions within this environment,” said Lawson. “We serve coffee, we have the restaurant, we have home items. We were really able to offer them, in 6,000 square feet, a concept that can be taken advantage of by a wide variety of clients.”
The Lago Room, with its frescoes, serves up to 40 people indoors and another 30 outside as an all-day cafe while transforming into a wine and cocktail bar at night.
Lawson said they included the Lago Room, which is unique to the Wilmette location, after observing there were few options in the village for an evening cocktail.
“We’ve noticed up here that bar seats were always a premium in any of the restaurants we went into,” Lawson said. “We didn’t want to do dinner service, because it’s just a whole different animal, but this allowed us to have something where people could gather.”
As for the designer clothing offerings, Lawson said women, ranging in age from 25 to 75, make up the primary clients.
“We offer the same (product) mix as our store in the Gold Coast,” he related. “Women appreciate that the store is curated the same way as downtown.”
Village Manager Michael Braiman says he’s been “blown away” by the transformation of Plaza Del Lago over the last year.
“They’ve taken what had been a somewhat dilapidated shopping center and restored its architectural and historical significance, and really beautified the place,” Braiman said.
Braiman says he expects the Plaza to draw customers across the Chicago area to the shopping center as well as to the village’s other commercial districts, like its downtown.
WS Development also owns Edens Plaza, where furniture e-commerce retailer Wayfair opened its first brick-and-mortar store in 2024 in a 150,000-foot space previously occupied for decades by Carson Pirie Scott.
Wilmette village trustees approved a zoning request for Club Studio at Edens Plaza this spring, while two fast-casual chains, Just Salad and Goddess and the Baker, have opened or are set to open in that shopping mall.
Village officials are hopeful the new openings at Plaza Del Lago and Edens Plaza will help bring the village’s commercial vacancy rate down to around 5%, which would be its lowest rate since before the COVID-19 pandemic. (The vacancy rate sat at 6% in September.)
“We feel really good about where our economic development has gone and is going,” Braiman said. “You know, a rising tide lifts all ships.”
