Art Van Furniture to open flagship store in Downers Grove

DOWNERS GROVE – The finishing touches are being made on the new Art Van Furniture store on Butterfield Road, which will open to the public Aug. 1.

Corporate officials gave members of the media and Downers Grove dignitaries a tour of the facility, located at 1021 Butterfield Road, on July 22. The official grand opening will be held July 30 with a private gala event, featuring a performance by Jennifer Hudson. The public opening will take place Aug. 1.

The store has 112,000 square feet of retail space on two floors.

Art Van Elslander, chairman and founder of Art Van Furniture, started the company in Michigan, but said he had long wanted to open stores in the Chicago suburbs.

"We always had an eye on Chicago," he said.

The Downers Grove store will be Art Van Furniture's eighth in the area.

"There's been a lot of emotion," Van Elslander said. "I've been excited about this store."

Art Van Furniture CEO Kim Yost said establishing the location has been a long process.

"When we started working on this concept, it took two years to secure this building," he said.

Yost said Downers Grove's will be the flagship Chicago area store, and that it will offer several new elements, including fiber optic lights, more windows and urban products.

Location General Manager Vince Maher said the store will feature thread and feather selection for pillows and furniture; a full-service Scott Shuptrie Interiors retail space; a counseling room to discuss project specifics; free monthly design classes; and a headboard gallery.

The Downers Grove location will also be home to some firsts for Art Van Furniture, such as the first ever bed that actively adjusts to the user's sleeping patterns, a flooring division and Cafe Fifty-Nine, a lounge area with televisions and complimentary cookies and drinks.

Mayor Martin Tully said the store is going to be beneficial for the village and that he recently drove past the location and was amazed by how it enhances the Downers Grove skyline.

"Aesthetically, it's delightful to see what they've done with that building," he said.

Another positive of the new store is that it will bring more sales tax revenue to the village. Michael Cassa, president and CEO of the Downers Grove Economic Development Corp., said Art Van Furniture is projecting net sales tax revenues of $150,000 annually.

Cassa said the Downers Grove site, previously the location of a Home Depot expo center that closed in 2009, was in direct competition with a site in Oak Brook to land the new store. Art Van Furniture started looking for a location in 2012.

The store will create 80 new jobs, he said.

"I think it's going to be great for the village, great for that corridor and great for Art Van," Cassa said.

The location was originally going to be an ordinary store, Tully said, and likely would have opened earlier. But the project was prolonged when Art Van Furniture decided to make the Downers Grove location its flagship.

"The delay was of the good kind. It wasn't that there were any problems or challenges," Tully said. "They wanted to make it a really, really special place."