Banquet hall planned for redevelopment of Dania site at Roosevelt, Finley roads in Lombard
A former Dania furniture store, an old bank and some auto service shops had been fading into obsolescence near the border of Lombard and Glen Ellyn.
The long-stagnant properties at the southwest corner of Roosevelt and Finley roads changed hands last year, and now there are signs of new life.
Under redevelopment plans, a portion of the cavernous former Dania store will be reimagined as a banquet hall that can host as many as 1,500 people as part of a lifestyle shopping center called the Burj Plaza. A mix of tenants are envisioned for another section of the main Dania building. The smaller buildings on the busy corner are also getting a new look for new business.
“It's a phenomenal project for Lombard,” said Mark Daniel, an attorney who’s outlined the project to village planners. “They should experience a large, large increase in tax revenues, not to mention a draw that brings people in from the surrounding area and outside of Illinois as a destination. Hotel rooms, I think, hotel occupancies will benefit from it.”
The owner of the properties at the “gateway into Lombard” off I-355 also owns the Omni Plaza in Lombard through a different entity, Daniel said.
“He hopes that this is a bit of a tourist destination,” Daniel said. “And it was important to locate a use in a town that was active with its chamber of commerce, active with hotel operators and the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Lombard really fit the bill for him.”
As conceived, the project will unfold in multiple phases. The corner bank is being converted into a drive-through restaurant space that’s expected to be filled by Bumper 2 Burger. A former auto service building to the south is slated to become a smoking establishment.
“Those are being remodeled and retrofitted to use as much of the buildings that we can. The same is true of Dania and the warehouse,” Daniel said.
The hope is to have the banquet facility open and operating by Memorial Day 2026, Daniel said Monday.
“This center is designed to host 12 or 14 tenants in addition to the banquet center,” he recently told Lombard’s plan commission.
The village already has granted zoning entitlements for the conversions of the bank and auto service building. Last week, plan commissioners recommended approval of other entitlements, including signage and parking deviations. Lombard trustees get the final say.
“I think we're looking forward to seeing things develop,” Daniel said. “Hopefully, the village board finds it in Lombard’s best interest to see the project through.”