New rooftop lounge approved for Chez Hotel in Arlington Heights
An Arlington Heights hotel’s new rooftop restaurant and bar will soon be able to open to the public, after receiving village zoning permissions Monday.
The 3,670-square-foot lounge is atop the six-story Chez Hotel, 519 W. Algonquin Road, which opened its 63 guest rooms last year following an extensive yearslong demolition and renovation of the former European Crystal banquet hall.
“After all these years, the project is complete,” owner Krystyna Cazares told village board members after the vote Monday night. “Thank you very much. And I would like to invite you all for a drink when you have a chance.”
The board’s 2019 approval of the hotel addition came with the caveat the sixth floor space be closed to the public and only available to hotel and banquet hall patrons. It could be booked for private events — so long as the main first floor banquet hall isn’t being used at the same time, the board decided at the time.
Parking has long been a point of contention between the village and the Cazares family who owns the hotel, as various versions of renovation plans have come through village hall since 2016.
The owners returned to the boardroom Monday night, again saying the parking demand wouldn’t be as large as expected.
The board — almost entirely new since the owners’ last appearance before the elected panel six years ago — agreed to grant a variation that will allow the hotel and its rooftop restaurant to operate with 171 parking spaces instead of 257 required under code.
A study by the hotel’s engineering consultant found peak parking demand on a Saturday would be 224 vehicles — an assessment village staff said was reasonable.
Chez Hotel also inked two off-site parking agreements with neighbors. The five-year deals allow for 140 spaces of overflow parking at Brite-O-Matic, 527 W. Algonquin Road, and Hand to Shoulder Associates, 515 W. Algonquin Road.
But if the hotel ends up creating a parking problem or unsafe impact on traffic, village officials said the owners must stagger event times, limit event sizes, restrict hours and days of operation for the banquet hall and restaurant, contract with the police department for traffic control personnel, and find more off-site parking areas.
Village officials warned they could revoke the land use variation the board approved Monday — which formally allows a restaurant in what is a manufacturing zoning district — if any problems aren’t rectified.
The rooftop restaurant will have indoor and outdoor seating; a retractable glass enclosure for the outdoor portion was recently installed. The structure was approved by the village’s design commission and is in the process of receiving final building permit inspections.
The hotel must come back to the village board for a liquor license in order to be able to sell alcohol in the rooftop space.
Hours for the rooftop will be from 4 to 10 p.m. on weekdays and from 4 p.m. to midnight on weekends.