Vacant Mt. Prospect building to be reborn as banquet hall

The Chicago Title and Trust building at 1700 S. Elmhurst Road in Mount Prospect will get new life this summer as a banquet hall and special events venue.

The building has been vacant for about two years.

But the new business, Victoria in the Park, is expected to have an limited opening in August and a grand opening Sept. 18.

Husband and wife Mario and Patricia Ferraro -- who run Victoria BeauJolie and Victoria Flying Lady in Schiller Park, Victoria Highwood in Highwood and Victoria Rosemont in Rosemont -- recently received the venue's liquor license.

It was the last major hurdle before moving ahead, said Mario Ferraro, whose family began the Victoria business in 1937.

"That was the end of the line with the red tape," Ferraro said. "Now we're moving to finish construction."

The building most recently housed Chicago Title and Trust, which was there for 10 years. Before that, it was a bank, said Bill Cooney, Mount Prospect's director of community development.

The venue will be a bit different from a typical banquet hall, which has multiple functions happening at the same time, Ferraro said.

Victoria in Mount Prospect will take more after the "gilded age of the Roaring '20s" since one major event will be held in multiple rooms, he said.

So, a group might begin cocktails in one room before proceeding to the dining room and afterward head out to the veranda for coffee, Ferraro said.

Although the building was originally built as a bank in the 1970s, it's ideal for this type of venue with a few modifications, said Patricia Ferraro.

"We fell in love with the building from the start," she said. "It's a beautiful building with a winding staircase inside. It should've been a banquet hall 40 years ago."