New shops coming to downtown Naperville

Three new businesses are filling gaps in Naperville's downtown commercial landscape.

Two are national restaurant chains and the other is a lamp shop with a sister store in Geneva.

Red Mango, a gourmet frozen yogurt franchise based out of Culver City, Calif., is expected to open one of two of the company's first Illinois ventures at 111 W. Jackson Ave. in late January or early February.

"We're doing to the frozen yogurt industry what Starbucks did with coffee," said Dan Kim, Red Mango president and CEO. "We really like suburbs that have a more sophisticated demographic and have a place (like the Riverwalk) where the community can hang out."

Kim's company is aggressively expanding, with seven stores open nationally now and 36 expected to be operating by the end of 2008, he said.

Red Mango is taking over the space vacated early last year by Arbor Vitae Java & Juice. Arbor Vitae co-owner Fran Pryor said she's not surprised a similar operation is taking their old spot.

"That's such a prime location," she said. "People expect something like that there now. When we took it over, it was a dump. It took us a good year to get families through the door."

Arbor Vitae moved to Northern Illinois University's Naperville campus on Diehl Road after 12 years at the site because it couldn't come to agreement with the building's landlord over a new lease, Pryor said.

The other restaurant chain opening downtown is Idaho-based Pita Pit. It is taking over a former Great Clips site at the River Square plaza at 22 E. Chicago Ave. This will be the chain's third Illinois location.

"They're something different and unusual that helps keep the uniqueness of downtown," said Patti Roberts, director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.

Caly Lamps and Shades opened Tuesday next door to where the Pita Pit will soon call home. Cathy Howard has operated a sister store in Geneva for 10 years.

"Downtown Naperville at one time had a lamp and shade store, but it's gone now and it's a void that we can fill," she said. "We like being in a downtown setting and when we were looking to expand being downtown somewhere was a priority."

She said a grand opening event is planned for the weekend of Dec. 14-16.