Holy Family Ministries to open resale shop in Arlington Hts.

Arlington Heights will soon have a third resale store in the same area along Rand Road.

Holy Family Ministries, a Chicago-based church, will open a 9,800-square-foot resale shop at 1101 E. Rand Road near a Salvation Army and Goodwill store following approval from the village board on Monday night.

The store, a first for the church, will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except for Thursdays, when it will stay open until 8 p.m..

"We're hoping to have a store that's distinct in the shopping experience and in the merchandising," said Holy Family CEO Susan Work.

All proceeds from the store will go back to Holy Family Ministries, based on the West Side of Chicago, to provide private education to low-income minority students and fund an anti-violence program for young adults, Work said. Holy Family Ministries is a $3 million organization founded in 1985 and based in the North Lawndale neighborhood.

The store will sell general merchandise as well as furniture, which Work said will set it apart from the other two resale stores on the block. She said it will also try to have a more upscale atmosphere than a typical resale shop.

The store will do pickup from individual homes and be at churches around the Chicago area each Sunday with a truck for collections, she said.

Work said she was looking at Skokie for the location but heard from a real estate developer that Arlington Heights was a good place to open a business.

"It's a family place," Work said. "We just really like the feel the of village."

The store name, Lucille, is after Work's mother, who is now suffering from dementia.

Work said the organization did a market survey before choosing the area and that she wasn't concerned about being near the other two stores.

"I think it's going to be really good for the village to have that cluster of stores," she said.

The space where Lucille will open has been vacant for several years, according to a village staff report.