Downtown Clarendon Hills Waited a Year for One Coffee Shop. This October Shows Whether It Was Worth It.

At the September 21 Village Board meeting, Chris Chacko stood up and told trustees he had "99 percent confidence" that Sparrow Coffee would open in October. The room applauded. Applause for a coffee shop at a village board meeting is unusual. It makes sense once you look at what the village has tied to this one storefront at 100 Park Ave.

Sparrow is moving into the former Starbucks and combining three units on the block into one. The village is putting $622,000 into the project through its downtown tax increment financing district. The plan is for growth in property tax revenue inside the district to pay that subsidy back. The original agreement had Sparrow open by last Halloween. After a couple of extensions, the deadline is now this Halloween. Chacko is aiming for a soft opening around October 15 and a full opening later in the month.

So the village has made this café the test case for its downtown, and October is when that test starts.

What the Village Is Waiting to Learn

Patch reported that Sparrow is seen as so important to downtown Clarendon Hills that some residents asked officials to put downtown improvements on hold until they could see what the café does for the area. That request came up most clearly in July, during a public comment session that ran nearly two hours.

The proposal on the table that night was a "flexible gathering space" at the Kenneth Sloan Triangle and the Prospect Avenue slip lane between Ann Street and Park Avenue. Removable bollards would close the area to traffic during events, and pavers and other hardscape upgrades would make it easier to host them. The village had already moved away from a full plaza after many residents raised traffic concerns. The flexible gathering space was the compromise version.

According to Patch, Kathleen Hirsman, a former Hinsdale High School District 86 board member, asked the board not to act on the plan until Sparrow Coffee had opened downtown.

Trustees on both sides said they had the same goal. Trustee Omar Chaudhry supported the plan because he wanted a way to keep businesses in town: "I want to stop this endless cycle of businesses that open and close when their leases are up." Trustee Ralph DeAngelis voted no because of the price: "I just feel it's too spendy for me. I do want to make reasonable improvements to downtown."

The Price Came Down by Over a Million Dollars

The size of the July number explains the split vote. The village had estimated the project at $1.2 million in April. By July, the proposed no-bid contract was almost three times that. Waiving competitive bidding required a two-thirds vote, and the board split 3–3.

Two months later, the board came back with a smaller deal.

The September resolution with Burke LLC passed with all six trustees voting yes, DeAngelis among them. The new cap is about $1.36 million lower than the July figure, a cut of roughly 42 percent.

The village staff memo in the September 21 agenda explains the cuts. The lower-cost version drops the landscape changes to the Sloan Triangle, the pavers in the roadway, the zero-grade design, and the new light poles and string lights. Under the new plan, the sidewalk on the west side of Prospect gets wider and outdoor dining in the parking stalls goes away. The plan adds new brick pavers on the west side of Prospect from Park Avenue to Railroad, rebuilds the planters at Railroad and mid-block, and adds new planters at Park Avenue. A new electrical drop at the north end means a stage there no longer needs a generator. The removable bollards are still in the plan. They will block vehicles at the north and south ends during special events, so the village no longer has to park dump trucks there.

The contract doesn't give a construction start date. It sets July 15, 2027 for substantial completion. Staff wrote that the contractors Burke chose have been careful to limit the impact of construction on local businesses.

So Sparrow opens this fall, and the event version of Prospect Avenue, with bollards at both ends, is scheduled to be largely finished by next July.

The Calendar Sparrow Opens Into

October is also one of downtown Clarendon Hills' busiest months on the event calendar. Here is the month with Sparrow's projected dates included:

• Saturday, October 3: The Clarendon Hills Chamber's Shop Hop, with stops at La Vie En Rose Apothecary, Vintage Charm, Curated by Amy Scott and Jacaranda Boutique & Interiors.
• Thursday, October 8: Farmers Market at Village Hall, 1 N. Prospect Ave., 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. That evening at 7:30, the Park District hosts a free, residents-only Campfire & Movie Night at the Prospect Park Council Ring, with s'mores and a showing of Coco.
• Thursday, October 15: Another Farmers Market at Village Hall, same hours. This is also around the date Chacko gave for Sparrow's soft opening.
• Friday, October 23: Brushes & Boos, a Halloween painting night at the Community Center from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It is for ages 21 and up, with wine available for purchase. It's part of the Park District's new adult special events series.
• Saturday, October 24: The Chamber's Halloween Walk. Downtown businesses hand out treats from 3 to 5 p.m., followed by music, shopping and dining downtown from 5 to 6 p.m. Trunk-or-Treat is in the North Metra parking lot on Burlington Avenue.
• Saturday, October 31: Village trick-or-treating from 3 to 7 p.m. This is also Sparrow's deadline under the subsidy agreement.

The Park District's homepage also promotes a new event called Boo on the Block, but hasn't posted its date yet.

If the soft opening stays on schedule, the Halloween Walk on October 24 will be the first big downtown crowd after Sparrow opens its doors. The Patch report put it simply: by the time you put on your Halloween costume, Sparrow will likely be open.

What Sparrow Brings With It

Chacko describes the space as where "great architecture meets craft coffee." He says it's worth the wait "because we did it correctly." He also said the café will have a substantial food menu: "Our croissants take four days to make just like they do in France. We run a different kind of coffee shop."

Sparrow already roasts in Chicago and runs a café in Naperville. Its website says its coffee is served at the majority of Chicago's Michelin-starred restaurants. For Clarendon Hills, that means an established operator with a track record is taking one of the most visible storefronts downtown.

The Rest of Prospect Avenue

Two more storefronts a block over show how long downtown openings can take here.

Rita's Italian Ice is coming to 22 S. Prospect Ave., the space Four Sons Mercantile left when it moved to Glen Ellyn in March. When Patch reported the news in May, the opening was expected "later this year," with no specific date. We haven't seen a newer date published.

At 27 S. Prospect Ave., the planned Prospect Tavern is still unresolved. The building most recently housed La Pearl and I Want Candy, and it has been mostly empty since Sue's Cakery closed in 2019. In May, the village's acting manager said the project was in default of its $265,000 subsidy agreement. Owner Chase Lofti disagreed. He said he had applied for demolition and construction permits as promised and that he remained committed to the renovation. No opening date has been announced since.

Both projects make Sparrow's timeline look more ordinary. A subsidized downtown storefront in Clarendon Hills can take a year or more to go from approval to opening. Sparrow's original target was last Halloween, and it is now reporting a mid-October soft opening, about a year later than first planned.

The streetscape contract assumes a downtown worth investing in, and Sparrow is the village's largest single bet on that idea this year. A soft opening around October 15, a Halloween Walk nine days later and a deadline on October 31 put the first test of that bet right in the middle of the busiest weeks on the calendar.

Downtown openings and village board votes shape what buyers notice on a Saturday walk down Prospect Avenue, and we keep track of both. If you're curious how Clarendon Hills' downtown changes might affect your home's value, Wardlow Group can put together a free home valuation, or show you off-market listings within walking distance of 100 Park Ave.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.