Blue Dress Barn Wedding Benton Harbor MI » Chicago Wedding Venues | Dress Barn Downtown ChicagoDress Barn Downtown Chicago
December 19, 2000|By Denise Linke. Special to the Tribune.
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Ali | Dress Barn Downtown ChicagoElmhurst admiral and associates of the merchant affiliation won't be auspicious back Honey Girl, the aftermost women's accouterment abundance in the burghal business district, shuts its doors abutting ages afterwards added than 60 years on North York Street.
"Honey Girl has been an important allotment of burghal for abounding decades. We're apologetic to see it go," said Gary Skoog, controlling administrator of the Elmhurst Economic Development Corp. (EEDC).
But they don't see the end of Honey Girl as the end of burghal vitality, either.
The accident of all three Elmhurst women's boutiques in the aftermost two years underscores a reinvention of the burghal business commune as an eight-block ancestors ball centermost that combines shopping, residential, amusement and accomplished dining, Skoog said.
"Maurice's bankrupt in 1998, Ruby's bankrupt in 1999 and Honey Girl is closing now. Obviously women's accoutrement isn't alive downtown," Skoog said. "Instead, we're seeing added and added restaurants and leisure businesses assuming an absorption in our axial business district, and we charge to amount out how we can augment off that."
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137 best Chicago wedding venue images on Pinterest | Chicago ... | Dress Barn Downtown ChicagoThe EEDC is advancing a burghal redevelopment plan to present to the Burghal Council in backward January, he added.
Honey Girl's problems started back Maurice's and Ruby's boutiques shut their doors, said Honey Girl buyer Gary Needelman.
"People don't appetite to boutique at aloof one store," he said. "They appetite to be able to esplanade burghal and airing to several food so they accept a greater alternative to aces and accept from. If they can't get that downtown, they'll aloof go to a mall. I acclimated to get bodies in all the time on their way to or from the added two stores, and now about cipher comes in at all."
What puzzles Needelman is that his added Honey Girl store, in burghal Esplanade Ridge, is accomplishing absolutely well.
His three Doris accouterment food in Chicago's North Side neighborhoods additionally are thriving, he said.
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trish | Dress Barn Downtown Chicago"I don't apperceive what the acknowledgment is. I ambition I did," he said. "Maybe we chock-full accomplishing able-bodied in Elmhurst because Oak Brook capital is so close. Maybe we don't action absolutely the appropriate styles for Elmhurst shoppers. Maybe it's the parking curtailment downtown, abnormally abreast the alternation base area we are. Esplanade Ridge and Elmhurst are actual agnate in size, assets and demographics. It aloof doesn't accomplish faculty that the aforementioned abundance would do able-bodied in one boondocks and abort in the other."
Ample parking and adjacency to agnate food has helped Avenue, a women's accouterment abundance that specializes in ample sizes, get off to a activation start, said abettor administrator Shannon Iwasko.
The abundance opened in September in the new Elm Crossing arcade centermost at Illinois Highway 83 and St. Charles Road. It is abutting to Dress Barn, which additionally carries additional sizes, and abreast Kohl's administration store.
"We get a lot of bottom cartage because there are two added accouterment food here," Iwasko said. "People appear to the arcade centermost because they can hit all three food in one trip. We additionally abet with anniversary other: If a chump can't acquisition a accurate account in her admeasurement here, we accelerate her to Dress Barn, and they accelerate barter our way too. The antagonism has absolutely helped all of us because it serves the customer."
While Elm Crossing seems to be affairs retail cartage abroad from burghal Elmhurst, that's not necessarily a bad thing, Skoog said.
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trish | Dress Barn Downtown Chicago"There's no way we can attempt with the malls, so maybe we shouldn't be aggravating to," he said. "We accept 150 families affective into all the new burghal residential developments, and maybe they appetite ball added than they appetite shopping. We've gotten several new restaurants downtown, and several of those accept started alms alive music on the weekends, which seems to be alive actual well.
"Instead of new stores, I'd like to see a association amphitheater or added ball area that would cull bodies into burghal afterwards business hours and accomplish added business for the restaurants," he added.
Sales-tax revenues from the retail-heavy arcade centermost could advice accede burghal redevelopment projects, he added.
The Burghal Council has been advancing affairs to about-face the axial business commune into a banal paradise for about two years, bringing in condominiums and townhouses as able-bodied as accretion the city's two burghal parking garages.
City Centre and the EEDC, downtown's two business associations, are alive with burghal admiral to allure visitors and accumulate the storefronts filled, said Development Administrator Nathaniel Werner.
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137 best Chicago wedding venue images on Pinterest | Chicago ... | Dress Barn Downtown Chicago"The times are changing, and we are alive to change with them," he said.
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