Taco restaurant, seafood eatery coming to Des Plaines hotel
Two new restaurants are coming to a hotel on Des Plaines' south side.
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 3001 S. Mannheim Road, will host the new eateries.
One will be part of the Cilantro Taco Grill chain, which has outlets in Addison, Elgin, Lombard and elsewhere. It'll replace one now operating about a mile away at 9509 W. Higgins Road in Rosemont, City Manager Michael Bartholomew said.
The other restaurant in the hotel will be Ostras, a seafood eatery with a Latin flavor, city officials said.
Summer 2023 openings are planned.
Mayor Andrew Goczkowski said he is excited by the culinary developments. He said he and his wife have dined at the Cilantro Taco Grill in Rosemont and enjoyed it.
"These are quality establishments," he said. "I'm very pleased that Des Plaines is seen as a draw, that restaurateurs can invest and open up and expect to succeed here."
Each restaurant will occupy about 3,000 square feet in an annex on the hotel's west side, Bartholomew said.
Leases have been signed for both operations, documents indicate.
In a related move, the Des Plaines City Council on Monday agreed to give the organization behind the Holiday Inn project, a limited liability company called O'Hare Real Estate, funds that were promised in a 2016 economic incentive agreement.
The 130-room hotel, which opened in 2019, is in the Orchards at O'Hare development. That complex also includes a BP gas station and convenience store, and it has room for other businesses that haven't yet been built.
A neighboring commercial building that includes a Panera Bread restaurant is part of the Orchards development, too.
The economic incentive deal calls for the Orchards' developer to get percentages of the property tax, sales tax and hotel tax generated there, once more than $2 million in eligible development expenses accumulate. Altogether, the incentives are worth up to $7.5 million, documents indicate.
Continued development of the property - and thus any payments - were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, officials said.
Aldermen approved the payments even though some expressed concerns about the pace of the project and elements that haven't come to fruition.