The building at 100 Park Avenue in downtown Clarendon Hills used to be three separate units, and its earlier occupants included a State Farm Insurance office, Little Creperie and an old Starbucks. Sparrow Coffee is turning all three units into a single room. That plan explains why a coffee shop with a subsidy agreement dated October 2024 is only now approaching its opening.
At a Village Board meeting on Monday, September 21, owner Chris Chacko told trustees the shop's soft opening will likely land around October 15, with a full opening later in the month. He said he has 99 percent confidence it will open in October. Patch, which has followed the project since the subsidy was first proposed, reported his remarks the same week.
That date is an estimate from the owner. The project has missed two deadlines already, so it helps to know what sits behind it.
The delay is the building
Patch reported that Chacko explained the hold-up to the village in the fall of 2025. In an email, he described the three original structures as having been joined in a "haphazard and unorthodox fashion." Combining them meant dealing with the roof. The conventional fix would have been dozens of wooden trusses, and Sparrow wanted to avoid the way that would look inside the finished room. So the company asked its architect, Clarendon Hills-based Michael Abraham, to use structural steel instead. Chacko said the resulting design "will be a statement within downtown Clarendon Hills." He also said sourcing steel was a challenge.
In other words, the shop's open interior is the same feature that slowed construction. The build is a structural renovation that brings three previously separate units under one roof.
Sparrow is not new to the business. It already runs a cafe in Naperville and a roastery in Chicago. Its website says its coffee is served at most of Chicago's Michelin-starred restaurants. At the September meeting Chacko said the Clarendon Hills location will have a full food program, and he singled out croissants that take four days to make.
How the dates stacked up
The timeline shows how much of the wait was built into the project from the start.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| December 2023 | Sparrow proposes taking over the entire 100 Park Ave. building. Little Creperie is set to move to 95 Park Ave. |
| October 2024 | The village approves a $622,000 subsidy agreement. The original deadline is Halloween 2025. |
| October 2025 | Chacko asks for a six-month delay, citing the roof structure and steel sourcing. |
| Spring 2026 | The village orders work halted over a safety concern and several maintenance issues. Staff report the problems were corrected days later. |
| April 13, 2026 | The Village Board grants another six months. The new deadline is Halloween 2026. |
| July-August 2026 | Village President Eric Tech's newsletter reports "excellent progress" and an opening in the coming months. |
| September 21, 2026 | Chacko tells the board that a soft opening around October 15 is likely. |
The subsidy comes from the downtown tax increment financing district, known as a TIF. Growth in property tax income inside the district gets reinvested there. When the money was first requested in 2024, a village memo said the five-year payback policy was expected to be met. That is a civic detail rather than a judgment. In April, the village's community development director, Ed Cage, said a new practice of weekly meetings on Sparrow's progress had already paid off.
What the next few weeks look like
Three dates fall close together, and they are worth setting side by side.
October 15 is a Thursday. The Clarendon Hills Chamber of Commerce farmers market, according to one listing, runs Thursdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Village Hall on North Prospect Avenue, with its final market of the season on October 15. If the soft opening and the last market fall on the same day, a Thursday morning stroll to Village Hall and back could end at a new counter on Park Avenue. That depends on both dates holding, and a soft opening may run on a limited schedule. Check the Chamber's site for the market's end date, and Sparrow's Clarendon Hills page for hours.
October 19 is the next regular Village Board meeting. The board meets on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Village Hall, 1 N. Prospect Avenue, and the meetings are open to the public. That falls four days after the expected soft opening and twelve days before the subsidy deadline. Agendas are posted on the village website, which makes the meeting a natural place to hear whether the schedule held.
October 31 is the deadline in the current agreement. The village's community development projects page lists Sparrow Coffee at 100 Park Ave. as under construction.
Why one coffee shop carries this much weight
Patch reported that some residents have urged the village to hold off on downtown improvements until they see what Sparrow does for the block. The block has already been changing. State Farm moved out and Little Creperie relocated to 95 Park Ave. In 2024, trustees were also set to vote on a $10,643 subsidy for Just Lift Fitness at 200 Park Ave., covering half of its fire alarm, plumbing and electrical work.
The village is also drafting a Downtown Improvement Plan, which it describes on its website as a roadmap for future growth and development downtown.
The other open storefront on Prospect Avenue
On Prospect Avenue, the building at 27 S. Prospect is another project the village has been watching. The space has been mostly vacant since Sue's Cakery closed in 2019, and its most recent tenants were La Pearl and I Want Candy. Owner Chase Lofti, whose business is in Hinsdale, proposed Prospect Tavern there, an American-style restaurant with a $265,000 TIF subsidy on a renovation expected to cost nearly $600,000.
The path has been uneven. In September 2025, a split Village Board rejected the deal over a parking condition for outdoor dining. The board revived it in December after that condition was dropped, and Lofti signed in January 2026. In April, village staff recommended ending the agreement because no permits or construction documents had been filed. The board voted unanimously to give Lofti a chance to resolve the matter, and he told trustees he was "100 percent committed." By mid-May, Patch reported that the village's acting manager, Paul Dalen, said the project remained in default, and Lofti disputed that. The most recent reporting found for this post is from May 2026, so its current status is unclear. The village agendas are the place to check.
A practical way to follow along
A few concrete steps cover most of what is worth tracking in October:
- Watch Sparrow's Clarendon Hills page for an announcement of the soft-opening date and hours.
- Check the Chamber's farmers market listing to confirm the October 15 final market before planning around it.
- Read the October 19 Village Board agenda on the village website, which will show whether Sparrow, Prospect Tavern or the Downtown Improvement Plan is on the table.
- Expect a phased opening. The owner described a soft opening first and a full opening later in the month.
The building on Park Avenue has taken a long time to become one room. If the soft opening arrives on October 15, that room will be open before the October 31 deadline arrives.
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