Randhurst driving business to Mt. Prospect
The 120 Mount Prospect businesspeople who came to the village’s annual Business Breakfast Thursday heard that compared with other communities, Mount Prospect is not doing so bad.
At the breakfast in the newly renovated Holiday Inn at 200 E. Rand Road, Director of Development Bill Cooney said a large part of the village’s success is due to the ongoing $150 million renovation of the Randhurst property by Casto Lifestyle Properties and JP Morgan Chase Bank.
“The economy, in general, is not so great,” he said. “But in talking to my counterparts in other towns I have discovered that Mount Prospect is in a pretty good place compared to others.”
The 1 million-square-foot Randhurst Village is attracting both national and local tenants, Cooney said.
TJ Maxx is expected to open in early November, with Billy Goat Tavern following in a few weeks and Old World Market in early 2012. Panera just got approval, and the Hampton Inn and Suites should open in late February.
Blackfinn Restaurant and Saloon signed a lease across from the AMC Theatre.
“Now they just need some of the small shops to come through and finish things off,” Cooney said.
And while Randhurst redevelopment may be the engine driving Mount Prospect retail, it is not the only spark, he said.
A study shows that 75 percent of Mount Prospect’s retail revenue comes from the Rand Road corridor. When the village committed $25 million to the Randhurst redevelopment, Cooney said, it was not only for Randhurst, but also to help improve the properties around it.
The Holiday Inn is the most conspicuous payoff. The hotel opened earlier this year after a $4 million renovation that “turned a marginal hotel into an all-new hotel,” Cooney said.
“The stigma of this property needs to go away because it was torn down to the studs and is now a totally new hotel,” he said.
A Chick fil-A restaurant is coming to Elmhurst Road next to Firestone. Northwest Community Hospital opened an immediate care center on Rand Road, and the Social Security Administration recently moved its offices from Prospect Heights to a new facility just south of Randhurst off Kensington Road.
Elsewhere, Cooney said, the Black Cow restaurant at Golf and Busse has opened, as has Emerson’s Ale House in downtown Mount Prospect. Stay Fit on Prospect Avenue is doubling its size; Mount Prospect State Bank is building a larger facility on the old Little America property; Multi-Pak has joined Bosch and Rauland Borg in the industrial building at Central and Arthur Roads; and an Alden Senior Housing facility will be built near Wolf and Kensington, expected to open in 2013.
Cooney announced the formation of a retail incubator program that will help small “mom and pop” retail operations get off the ground. It will be a support group for new and aspiring businesses, getting them help with accounting, marketing and legal.
The program will be a joint project of the Mount Prospect Public Library, the chamber of commerce and the Downtown Merchants Association.
Cooney also said that a study of the Northwest Highway corridor has been approved and that the village is looking at possible annexation opportunities along the edges of the village, including the United Airlines property and several other unincorporated parcels on the south end of town.
Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks congratulated the village’s businesses for keeping their heads up during the downturn.
“Mount Prospect’s businesspeople are the faces of the village to the larger world, and I am really proud of you,” she said. “I admire your courage that allows you to keep your doors open during this very challenging time.”