Mundelein's Barn XO to get $50,000 municipal grant for building improvements
A furniture company that's relocating within Mundelein is set to receive a $50,000 municipal grant to pay for exterior and interior improvements at its new operation.
Barn XO is the latest beneficiary of Mundelein's Business Incentive Grant program. The village board approved the grant Monday night.
Launched about three years ago, Barn XO makes and sells furniture with wood salvaged from buildings and barns. It's moving to 800 E. Route 45 from 1355 Armour Blvd.
The Armour Boulevard shop is in an industrial area and doesn't attract a lot of passersby, owner Kyle Nied said. The Route 45 location - a long-vacant, 29,000-square-foot commercial building - is on a much busier roadway near the Royal Cantonese Restaurant, Dover Straits and other businesses.
Nied is hoping the increased visibility will lead to more customers at his store.
"Being off a main road, you're gonna get a lot more visibility," Nied told the village board.
Nied is planning to improve the landscaping on the property, re-side the building and make a variety of indoor changes, including the construction of an 11,000-square-foot showroom, village documents indicate. The furniture will be manufactured in a different area in the building.
The work is expected to cost Barn XO $233,357.
Nied said he hopes the new Barn XO location will be ready for customers by Dec. 1.
Officials were jubilant about Barn XO's pending move.
"I'm happy to see you start here and stay here," Trustee Erich Schwenk said.
Under the Business Incentive Grant program, awards of up to $25,000 are available for interior improvements and up to $25,000 for exterior improvements. Grants of up to $5,000 are available for sign improvements, too.
Instead of getting the money up front, recipients are reimbursed for their expenses.
Since the program launched in 2014, 65 grants totaling more than $604,000 have been awarded. The Barn XO grant leaves $75,000 available for business incentive grants for this fiscal year, which runs through next April.