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Restaurant to lease space in new Champaign-Urbana, Ill., shopping center
(News-Gazette, The (Champaign-Urbana, IL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 25--URBANA -- Chalk up Milo's Restaurant as the newest business planning to move to The Pines shopping center in southeast Urbana.
The fine-dining restaurant, which has been at Urbana's Lincoln Square Village for more than a decade, will occupy its own building alongside a pond in the 11-acre commercial complex at the southeast corner of Philo and Windsor roads.
The 4,500-square-foot building is expected to be finished in July, in time for an August opening, said Mark Dixon, director of commercial real estate for The Atkins Group, which is developing The Pines.
"The entrance (to the restaurant) will be to the north, but the dining room will face west to take advantage of the sunset and views to the pond," Dixon said.
Jane Anderson, who owns and operates Milo's with her husband, Obdulio Escobar, said the move will give Milo's more space and more parking.
"We wanted to stay in Urbana, but in a bigger space with a more user-friendly kitchen," she said. "We plan to have the same homey, comfortable ambience of the current Milo's. It will be pretty cheerful with bright colors. We'll try to recreate some of the atmosphere here." Anderson said Milo's has been at Lincoln Square since September 1997 and will continue to lease space there on a month-to-month basis until the move. If Lincoln Square finds a new tenant for the Milo's space, it's supposed to give the restaurant 30 days' notice, she said.
The new building at The Pines will give Milo's twice the space it has at Lincoln Square, she added.
"The new place will seat about 110 people, which is about 25 to 30 percent more than the current Milo's," Anderson said. A private dining room will seat about 32, and there will be outdoor dining near the pond.
Anderson said available parking at Lincoln Square dwindled as the neighboring federal courthouse restricted parking and as large employers Health Alliance Medical Plans and Carle took space in the mall and required parking for employees.
"We had a good long run here, but after you've been at a certain location for a while, you need to change ... or people will forget where you are," Anderson said.
At Lincoln Square, Milo's attracts a lunch crowd from the county and federal courthouses. At the new site, Anderson hopes to draw lunch business from the nearby Carle and Christie clinic branches as well as from Busey Bank.
She hopes the new location will be more visible than the current spot.
"Here, people can't see us from the street," she said, noting the federal courthouse blocks the view from Vine Street.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: Here's an update on some other developments in the area of Philo and Windsor roads:
MONICAL'S: Scheduled to open Monday at The Pines is the new Monical's Pizza restaurant at 2720 S. Philo Road. That restaurant will replace the Monical's on East Washington Street in Urbana. That store closed last Sunday after having been in business since 1973.
The new restaurant seats 128 and has 47 parking spaces.
"We designed our dining rooms to accommodate a variety of gatherings, from a quiet dinner date to a team celebration," said company architect Ralph Rorem.
Full wait service will be offered in the dining room at lunch and dinner. Customers can also call ahead to place orders for dining in and can stop at the pickup window for takeout. Delivery service will be available to a limited area.
BUSEY BANK: The Busey Bank office at the southeast corner of Philo and Windsor roads opened Jan. 14, but will celebrate its grand opening Monday through Friday of this week with daily drawings.
The 4,500-square-foot facility at 2710 S. Philo Road has three drive-up lanes and two automated teller machines, as well as automated light controls inside the building, branch manager Marsha Russell said.
MEIJER: The Meijer store, under construction at the northeast corner of Philo and Windsor roads, is scheduled to open in the fall, probably around October, said Frank Guglielmi, director of public relations for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer.
Guglielmi said new Meijer stores generally employ 300 to 400 people, and prospective employees can apply for jobs online at www.meijer.com. Once the store is built, interviews will be conducted on site, probably in mid-August to late September, he said.
CARLE CLINIC: Farther to the east, Carle Clinic-Urbana on Windsor is expected to open in June, said clinic spokeswoman Jennifer Hendricks.
The two-level, 68,000-square-foot building at 1818 E. Windsor Road will offer primary care, with family medicine, adult medicine, pediatrics and dermatology expected to move in on a staggered basis, she said.
CHRISTIE CLINIC: Christie Clinic is expecting to move into its new Urbana clinic at 1710 E. Windsor Road on May 1, according to Christie spokeswoman Karen Blatzer.
The single-story, 8,000-square-foot building is expected to accommodate pediatrics, family practice, magnetic resonance imaging, radiology and convenient care, she said.
RETAIL AT THE PINES: At this point, no stores have leased space in the 18,000 square feet of retail space at The Pines. The space is set up for 12 tenants, with 1,500 square feet apiece.
"We're in discussions with groups, but we don't have anything signed at this point," Dixon said. "Things get slow from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day, but it will start to pick up in the spring."
STONE CREEK COMMONS: Just to the east of the Pines is the Stone Creek Commons office park, also developed by The Atkins Group. At this point, occupants include the American Oil Chemists' Society, Coldwell Banker Devonshire Realty, Edward Jones and The Atkins Group itself.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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