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CHICAGO, IL — Five new tenants will soon be opening their doors at the Promenade Bolingbrook, but two of them are businesses you probably have never heard of before.

The aloft hotel will open its first location in the world and the Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinema will open its second location in the US at the southwest suburban center. Cold Stone Creamery, The Body Shop and Payless Shoes also signed leases in the lifestyle development.

"The village was incredibly easy and eager to have the new developments," says Valerie Westley, development director with Forest City Enterprises Inc.

The Promenade Bolingbrook, when completed, will be four phases of mixed−use development at the corner of Interstate 355 and Boughton Road. The lifestyle center component of the project is currently 90 percent leased, with The Body Shop and Coldstone Creamery signing leases for space along the Village Green portion of the center and Payless taking a space near the theater. The lifestyle center still has a few prime spaces left at the corners of the Main Street and the Village Green area, but Forest City is holding our for prime fashion tenants for those spaces, Westley says.

"Those are key spaces in the center and we want to make sure they are leased to key fashion tenants," she says. "Of course, the market isn't helping with that right now."

The Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinema is an Australian-based concept theater with eight 32−seat cinemas that will occupy at a 42,000-square-foot space at the south end of the center. The cinemas will include large leather seats as well as food and beverage service. The cinema will be the second of its kind in the US, following the opening of another location in the north suburbs, Westley says. The theater will be built out by Graycor Construction and is scheduled to open in fall 2009.

"Now, people will be able to get dinner and drinks and see a show all in one location," Westley says.

The aloft hotel won't be a part of the actual lifestyle center, but instead will occupy the land just to the south at Janes Avenue and Falconridge Way. The 155−room hotel is a new concept for the Starwood Hotels chain. It was inspired by the W Hotels with an edgy style, but still geared toward the business traveler. The Bolingbrook location is anticipated to be among the first of about 500 aloft hotels that will open by 2012 and is being developed by LTD Management Co. LLC.

"When we were in the process of building the Promenade, there really weren't many places to stay in this area, except for maybe Oak Brook," Westley says. "So this should be the perfect location for a hotel for business travelers."

The hotel will include a small cafe on the first floor and is scheduled to open in June 2009.

Aside from the existing pieces of the Promenade and the hotel, which will be under construction soon, a fourth phase of development is set to begin soon, Westley says. The 53−acre parcel of land just south of what will be the hotel is slated to become a power center−type development. Forest City is working with Dallas, Texas−based Brewer Development on that portion of the project.

SOURCE:Illinois Real Estate Journal
DATE:04−23−2008

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