New businesses continue to flock to Oak Park. So far this year, 17 new business licenses have been issued by the village. The total number of new business licenses issued in 2023 was 103, representing the third consecutive year that the village issued more than 100 new licenses.
“We are in a good place as a community, in terms of recruitment,” said David King, president of Oak Park commercial real estate firm David King & Associates. “I could not be more excited about 2024. We’re working with a whole slew of prospective tenants looking to come to Oak Park.”
Three restaurants that King are particularly excited to see open within the next few months are Café Cubano, Egg Harbor Café and Gyumon.
Café Cubano, a family-owned and operated Cuban restaurant, is moving from Elmwood Park to 113 N. Oak Park Ave. in the Hemingway District. Located at the former home of Fritzi’s Delicatessen, the new location plans to open May 1.
Egg Harbor Café is a family-owned restaurant chain with multiple locations across Illinois, Wisconsin and Georgia. It is slated to open its Oak Park location in June at 1111 South Blvd. The site was vacant for almost two years after the previous restaurant, Wild Onion Tied House, closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also planning a June opening is Gyumon, which will be an all-you-can-eat Japanese barbecue restaurant where diners will get to cook fresh food right at their table. Gyumon will be located in the downtown Oak Park corridor at 105 N. Marion St. The restaurant is leasing the storefront once occupied by Kalamata Kitchen, which closed in September.
“What is cool about Gyumon is that in addition to being a restaurant, it’s an experience and people are looking for experiences,” King said. “Gyumon takes that restaurant experience to another level.”
Office space
King said it’s important to note that office vacancy rates in Oak Park, particularly along Lake Street, continue to be notably low.
As of Dec. 31, the office vacancy rate in the Lake Street corridor, which is composed of 375,000 square feet of office space, was 8.84%.
“That is beyond unheard of in today’s world,” King said.
Cameron Davis, the village’s economic vitality administrator and assistant director of Development Services, said office vacancy rates are currently a strong bellwether on economic strength.
“If anything, we probably need more office space going forward into the future,” Davis said. “We have so many people interested in having a presence here in Oak Park,” he said.
“Occasionally businesses do decide to close, but the good thing about Oak Park is that we oftentimes have new businesses that slide right into those spots because people consider Oak Park to be very vibrant,” he said.
One example Davis cited was the closure of KFC’s Oak Park location at 316 Madison St. earlier this year.
“Sometimes businesses close but new businesses that come in bring new vitality,” Davis said.
“We had KFC close a couple months ago and now we have a new chicken restaurant that will be announced in the not-too-distant future that has bought that KFC space on Madison Street.”
Darien Marion-Burton, executive director of the Oak Park and River Forest Chamber of Commerce, said he is looking forward to checking out The Coffee Shop – Oak Park. The new coffee shop opened April 1 at 163 S. Oak Park Ave in the location that was Brewpoint Coffee, which closed in March.
Marion-Burton said there are also a slew of businesses coming to Oak Park that are not food related, including Big City Optical, which recently announced the opening of a new location at 1100 Lake St., Unit 180. Big City Optical is an optical shop and optometry practice with 18 locations (including their new Oak Park location) throughout the Chicagoland area.
“I love that medical businesses in particular continue to settle in Oak Park,” Marion-Burton said.
“At the chamber, I would say that about 30% of our businesses are health and wellness, so I think it’s great to see a larger, city-based healthcare provider make a home in Oak Park.”
Marion-Burton also highlighted the positive impact that Comedy Plex Comedy Club, 1128 Lake St, is already starting to have on the village since opening its doors in January.
The space, which accommodates roughly 200 patrons, is starting to bring a lot more people to the Oak Park business districts during the evening hours, Marion-Burton said.
“I grew up here and Oak Park has not always been a destination for nightlife,” Marion-Burton said. “I think that Comedy Plex is definitely changing the game.”
Emily Egan, the village’s director of Development Services, said there are a lot of things that make Oak Park attractive and gives it a competitive advantage compared to the rest of Chicago’s suburban communities.
“We have so many really great assets that make businesses want to locate here,” Egan said. “One competitive advantage is just the diversity of businesses. We have chains, we have startups, we have entrepreneurs. We have all of that in our various business districts. There is such a variety which I think is fantastic.”