Three restaurants at DeKalb Oasis close due to COVID-19 economic impacts

According to a layoff notice posted on an Illinois job site, 85 workers at the Popeyes, TravelMart and Starbucks at the DeKalb Oasis were laid off by parent company HMS host as those stores ceased operations due to economic impacts as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Messages left with HMS Host went unanswered. No one at the Illinois Tollway could be reached for comment either.

The spreadsheet posted to the Illinois Work Center Friday listed the layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Information on the other services at the Oasis was unavailable.

At 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, the McDonalds, Sbarro and Subway were open at the Oasis. The TravelMart, Popeyes and Panda Express were closed.

The Oasis was subject to the initial order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker closing restaurants to dine-in customers. The tables at the Oasis have been removed but some of the restaurants are open for carry-out.

The WARN information indicated that the first layoffs came March 20 and were COVID-19 related. The site also indicated that Starbucks, Popeyes and Travel Marts at Oases in Bedford Park, South Holland, Belvidere, Lake Forest and two in Chicago were also closed permanently.