Taste of Glen Ellyn organizers looking for new site

Glen Ellyn's signature summer festival could be on the move to a new downtown venue, organizers say.

For some 30 years, the Taste of Glen Ellyn took place on a parking lot near Giesche Shoes. But that store went out of business and last May a real estate firm stepped forward with a plan to redevelop the property into a retail and apartment complex.

Village trustees got only a conceptual look at the project. The Opus Group has indicated it's preparing more detailed designs, but it hasn't formally submitted the paperwork to the village yet, Planning and Development Director Staci Hulseberg said Monday.

Still, the Glen Ellyn Chamber of Commerce doesn't want to take any chances and is asking to relocate the four-day festival in May, Executive Director Mike Formento said.

A chamber committee considered nine sites that included village and park land. A downtown commuter parking lot emerged as the front-runner after meetings with police, fire and village officials, Formento said.

The festival previously shut down a stretch of Main Street to traffic on the Taste weekend. But organizers don't expect such road closures around the proposed alternative, on the south side of the train tracks between Main Street and Park Boulevard.

One challenge will be to reroute Metra passengers who park their cars in the lot, mostly during the week. So commuters, business owners and residents are invited to give input on the proposed move during a village board workshop at the Civic Center at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 18.

The size of the fest would remain about the same. Organizers are working on the layout, but food and business vendors, entertainment acts and a possible art show - a new addition - would take up the western portion of the parking lot.

"I'm hopeful this could be become the permanent location," Formento said.

The eastern portion of the lot also could accommodate a carnival run by a committee of volunteers independent of the chamber. The carnival traditionally has opened a day before the Taste in a village lot near the former McChesney & Miller grocery store, where developers also hope to raze a vacant building to make way for apartments and retailers.

"We work closely with them and of course there is a potential that something happens at the McChesney site that they too will have to move," Formento said.

He said he's confident the site offers easy access for crowds, numbering as much as 25,000 over the four days of the Taste.

"That's why this all works out into a nice site," Formento said. "I think it's a win-win situation for everyone."