Art Van Furniture largest of new stores coming to Downers Grove
Art Van Furniture will open a store at 1021 Butterfield Road in Downers Grove.
By Annemarie Mannion, Chicago Tribune
June 18, 2015
The village of Downers Grove has some good news on the retail front.
Three chains are opening new stores in the village.
The first — and largest — is Art Van Furniture, which is building a 100,000-square-foot store on Butterfield Road, just west of Highland Avenue.
“We went after that project very hard,” said Michael Cassa, president of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corp. “They are a great anchor for a community to land, and it was a difficult site to fill.”
The previous occupant of the site, which had been vacant for about four years, was a Home Depot Expo Center store.
The village provided sales tax incentives to attract the furniture retailer. The retailer will take 50 percent of its share of the local sales tax revenue for 15 years. The village imposes a 1 percent local sales tax and a 1 percent home-rule sales tax.
Cassa said he expects the new store of the Michigan-based chain to appeal to shoppers.
“A great portion of the exterior is going to be glass, so it’s going to be fantastic,” he said.
Another retailer that has found new space in Downers Grove is Michaels, which sells materials for arts and crafts. It will go into a 20,000-square-foot space in Finley Square, a shopping center at the northeast side of Butterfield and Finley roads.
Federal Realty Investment Trust owns the center that has a total of 314,000 square feet and 1,154 parking spaces. Other tenants include PetSmart, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
A third retailer coming to Downers Grove is Harbor Freight Tools, which is taking 14,000 square feet on 75th Street, just west of the Grove Shopping Center. The company sells tools and hardware and was founded in 1977 as a family-owned business. Today, it sells 7,000 types of tools and accessories, according to the company website.
