New downtown Lombard businesses include jewelry store, salons

Five businesses have opened their doors this year in downtown Lombard to help give the area a new look.

“I'm just very pleased with who's coming down here,” said Sarah Richardt, executive director of Lombard Town Centre, a group that promotes downtown.

The businesses are:

• Penelope Jewelry and Watches, which opened last week at 141 W. St. Charles Road. The store offers a variety of jewelry for men and women, including watches designed in Switzerland and Japan and jewelry made with Swarovski crystals and pearls from exotic places, according to the Penelope Facebook page.

• Sparkle Again Boutique, which opened this month at 13 N. Main St. The store offers new and used dancewear and replaces Dance It Again, which sold the same type of items before closing in May.

• Gathering Lighthouse, a nonprofit at 26 N. Park Ave. that offers services to “make your life happy, in all different ways,” Richardt said. Some offerings at the center, which opened this summer, include yoga classes, seminars about independence and self-reliance, hypnosis and psychic readings.

• DRYtini, a salon offering only blowdrys, updos and styling at 8 S. Park Ave. Richardt said the owners are in the process of applying for a liquor license so they can serve alcohol while clients get their hair done. The salon's parent company offered mobile spa services for 10 years before DRYtini opened in April.

• Hair Experts, a full-service salon that opened in January at 16 W. St. Charles Road. Besides haircuts for men, women and children, the salon offers spray tans and other skin care services.

In addition, a few politicians, including Peter Breen and Chris Nybo, recently rented buildings for their campaign offices.

“Even though they're temporary offices, it's great because they come in and they clean and they fix it up and they have to bring it up to code,” Richardt said. “Now, when they leave, we have places ready for businesses to move in.”