Very moving time: Orland Plaza tenants anxious as center’s closing looms
BY MIKE NOLAN mnolan@southtownstar.com February 10, 2012 11:48PM
Beatrice Doctor, owner of Knitting Etc., packs up inventory as tenants leave Orland Plaza. | Larry Ruehl~Sun-Times Media
Where are they now?
Apart from those that closed their doors, here’s where other tenants in Orland Plaza have planted new roots, or plan to move to:
Bloomingfields Florist & Gifts: Is scheduled to move next month to 11229 W. 143rd St. in Orland Park, near CVS.
Frontier Construction: Relocated to Willow Springs.
Knitting Etc.: Moving to 14428 S. John Humphrey Drive in the Horton Center. The business hopes to open sometime in March.
Miroballi Shoes: Is operating from a temporary location in former New Balance, 16131 S. LaGrange Road, behind Houlihan’s. It’s building a new store at LaGrange Road and 144th Place.
Norman’s Cleaners: No immediate plans to reopen elsewhere. They closed their Orland Plaza location at the end of December, but have two other Orland shops — at 143rd Street and 82nd Avenue, and 159th Street and Wolf Road.
Orland Bakery: Relocated to 14850 LaGrange Road, behind IHOP in the Dania Furniture Plaza.
Orland Plaza Barber Shop: Now Orland Barber Shop, it’s also in the Horton Center, at 14436 S. John Humphrey Drive.
Plaza Cafe: Renamed Stacked, it opened Dec. 1 at 5273 W. 95th St. in Oak Lawn, directly south of village hall and the library.
Syman Jewelers: Moving to Heritage Square, 9428 W. 143rd St., Orland Park, which is north of the Terry’s Lincoln auto dealership.
Tri-City Electric: Opened at 16309 S. 107th Ave. in Orland Park.
Adventure Travel, Gee-Schussler Insurance and Marquette Bank won’t have to vacate until 2014.
Article Extras
Updated: March 13, 2012 8:04AM
Since she started her business, Knitting Etc., four decades ago, Beatrice Doctor has hopscotched around Orland Park.
There was a 10-year run in Orland Square Mall, followed by a stint inside a farmhouse at 151st Street and West Avenue. Then, seven years ago, Doctor picked up again and settled at Orland Plaza.
“I thought this was going to be my last move,” she said.
But with Orland Park poised to take over the shopping center starting this week to make way for luxury apartments, staying put isn’t an option. What started in 2008 with the village suing to gain ownership of the plaza is ending with an exodus of businesses, although many are staying in Orland Park.
Windows around the shopping center, northwest of LaGrange Road and 143rd Street, are plastered with signs thanking patrons and directing them to tenants’ new outposts.
Some, such as Syman Jewelers, aren’t going very far, although to owner Gene Syman it feels like a forced march. He’s moving a couple of blocks east to Heritage Square, northeast of LaGrange Road and 143rd Street.
“I’m not going to stand in the way of progress, but the way they (village officials) handled it, it could have been better,” he said.
Doctor is still weeks away from having her new storefront ready, meaning she won’t be ringing up sales.
“They don’t realize how emotional moves can be, especially when you’re forced out,” she said.
Tenants including Creative Cabinetry, Kosnar Liquors, Lang Lee II Restaurant, Paper Creations and Randy’s Market simply closed their doors, while others are stuck in limbo.
Not a pressing move
More than a half-century ago, Norman Vuillame opened a dry-cleaning shop in Orland Plaza, later adding a formalwear shop next door. Today, Norman’s Cleaners is run by two of Vuillame’s sons, Richard and Al, and has five shops, including two in Orland — at 143rd Street and 82nd Avenue, and 159th Street and Wolf Road.
The Orland Plaza location closed at the end of last year, with the dry-cleaning equipment being cannibalized for parts or sold for scrap, Richard Vuillame said.
He said that he and his five siblings all worked in the Orland Plaza shop at some point in their lives, and that it was the chain’s best-performing location.
“This has been a very bittersweet thing for us,” he said. “Growing up in there (the shop), it’s like losing your house.”
The problem is, being bookended by the two other dry-cleaning shops, Norman’s needs to keep a presence on or very near LaGrange Road, Vuillame said. With work on a multiyear project to widen the street starting later this year, however, he said Norman’s is going to hold off and “evaluate more locations.”
Business blooms elsewhere
“Emotionally, it is really kind of sad,” said Larry Zona, whose Bloomingfields Florist & Gifts will move next month to a shopping center at 143rd Street and Wolf Road, where CVS has a store. “This was a really good plaza.”
Still, Zona, a tenant in the plaza for 26 years, is optimistic.
“I’m really happy with the end result because I have been on the 143rd (Street) corridor, so it’s easy for my customers to find me again because I am just down the street,” he said.
Zona said the move west might even let him tap into a new customer base.
“It could be a whole new leaf we could be turning,” he said.
With Knitting Etc.’s inventory packed in a mountain of cardboard boxes, Doctor is too nervous to be overly optimistic, but is hopeful her move works out. She’ll relocate to 14428 S. John Humphrey Drive, in the Horton Center north of Orland Square Mall. Her neighbor will be another Orland Plaza transplant, Orland Plaza Barber Shop, which has reopened with the abridged name Orland Barber Shop.
But Knitting Etc.’s new space isn’t quite ready, so Doctor has to find a temporary home for all her boxes and hope her customers are patient. She’s mailed fliers to 2,000 of her regulars, letting them know about her upcoming move.
A triumphant return?
Tom Demacopoulos said he wanted to keep his popular Plaza Cafe in Orland Park, but couldn’t find a spot that fit his budget. He, his wife and their four children live in Hickory Hills, and his wife came across the empty Baja Fresh Mexican Grill at 5273 W. 95th St. while driving one of their sons to hockey practice in Oak Lawn.
Demacopoulos said he felt “a lot of uncertainty” about picking up and moving out of town, but that his restaurant, renamed Stacked and directly south of Oak Lawn’s village hall and library, has been a hit.
“I couldn’t have scripted it (the move) better,” he said. “There is a happy ending to the story.”
He’s already thinking about expanding and opening Stacked II in Orland Park. While the plans are very preliminary, Demacopoulos said he’s talking to Orland Park officials about being a tenant in the new development that’s edging out his former home.
“It’s a ways off, but it’s something we’re interested in,” he said.
What’s coming
Once the majority of Orland Plaza’s tenants are out, the village plans to redevelop the property as part of its Main Street project. Nearly 300 upscale apartments with retail space on the main floor would be built initially, and Ravinia Avenue would be extended north through the property.
Orland Park is spending $7.5 million to buy the shopping center and is borrowing $62 million to build the apartments, called Ninety 7 Fifty on the Park. It will take ownership of one slice of Orland Plaza on Tuesday, followed by another piece Feb. 21. It won’t gain control of the remainder of the land until 2014.
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