Yorktown Center to get Dave & Buster’s, new restaurants
A Dave & Buster’s entertainment complex is slated to open at Yorktown Center in the coming year, along with a string of new restaurants in and around the Lombard mall.
Naperville-bred Empire Burgers + Brew, the first Chicago-area Ancho & Agave taco restaurant and a Popeyes also are expected to spice up the mall dining scene in 2024.
The new additions are part of a broader effort to reinvigorate one of the oldest enclosed shopping malls in the Western suburbs. Yorktown’s owner, Pacific Retail Capital Partners, and Chicago-based Synergy Construction Group aim to put hundreds of apartments and a Main Street-style plaza next to the mall.
“It's created a great buzz,” Yorktown general manager Josh Dean said of the planned residential development. “I think that a lot of the national retailers are starting to look at Yorktown for an option as well. Post COVID, there wasn’t a lot of activity, but now we're starting to gain that traction.”
Dave & Buster’s, an arcade/sports bar, will take up about 20,000 square feet of what’s known as The Shops on Butterfield, an extension of the mall, but with more convenient parking and a walkable streetscape.
Dave & Buster’s will be located in an existing building near the Forever 21 and H&M entrance. The new venue will replace Orvis and a few other vacant spaces. Orvis is not renewing its lease, which expires at the end of January, Dean said.
Dave & Buster’s plans to begin its build-out toward the end of February, early March, Dean said. The Dallas-based chain looks to open the entertainment center prior to the 2024 holiday season.
“With our upcoming opening at the Yorktown Shopping Center, Dave & Buster’s is excited to continue to grow in the Chicagoland area,” company spokesman Pete Thornfield said in a statement. “We look forward to becoming Lombard’s new premier entertainment attraction when we open our doors in 2024.”
In another major development, Yorktown shoppers should start to see the vacant Carson’s department store building come down early in the spring. The demolition will make way for a park-like plaza designed to link the planned apartments with the 1.2 million-square-foot mall.
The residential project calls for developing two apartment buildings in phases. The five-story complex, called Yorktown Reserve, would contain as many as 621 units.
“With the capital markets being in a little bit of flux, there was a little bit of a hold period, but the joint venture with Synergy and Pacific Retail has secured financing,” Dean said, “and so we're hoping to break ground towards the end of February in 2024.”
The development team also intends to reconfigure tenant space adjacent to the multifamily buildings. Mall operators envision a new, two-story mall entrance, pedestrian improvements and outdoor dining creating a neighborhood-like environment.
“We're hoping to, again, offer a number of different experiential uses that surround that area to make it a real community space,” Dean said.
Other suburban malls have been making room for housing and restaurants to bring back customers who went online. Yorktown management hopes to attract nontraditional tenants that would serve new residents.
“As the property evolves, we're almost starting to think of it as a retail-anchored living community...We want to add medical, grocery, have the residents be able to have access to everything they need without going off site,” Dean said.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is under construction and should be open by the first of April. The fried chicken restaurant will join The Eatery, the mall’s version of a food court.