Craft brewery, pizza restaurant coming to Mount Prospect's redeveloped Prospect Place
For years, the idea of a craft brewery in downtown Mount Prospect has been slowly fermenting. Now, south of the Union Pacific tracks in the new Prospect Place development, the concept is coming to fruition.
Robert Salerno, the owner of Salerno's Pizzeria & Eatery on Kensington Road in Mount Prospect, plans to move the eatery to Prospect Place and bring with it a Whiskey Hill Brewing Co.
The village board last week approved a redevelopment agreement that will allow the pizzeria and brewery to move into the development at the southwest corner of Route 83 and Prospect Avenue.
Now under construction, Prospect Place is planned as a mixed-use, five-story building with 80 apartments above 10,000 square feet of commercial space.
Salerno, who owns more than a dozen Salerno's pizza locations and other restaurants throughout the Chicago area, plans to take up 6,400 square feet on the western side of the development.
“Whiskey Hill would have a fully operational brewery on site, which is something that has been a priority of the village for many years to get into the downtown,” Mount Prospect Community Development Director Bill Cooney said.
The investment in the two restaurants will reach $1.1 million, Cooney added. The village has been asked to assist the project with $300,000 from the downtown Prospect and Main TIF (Tax Increment Financing) District. A decision from the village board is pending.
Cooney said the two restaurants are expected to generate approximately $100,000 in annual sales taxes and food and beverage taxes for the village. It also would have about 35 employees, with an annual payroll of $1 million.
The goal is for both restaurants to open by the fourth quarter of 2023.
Salerno said he opened a Whiskey Hill Brewing Co. in West suburban Westmont four years ago. The name reflects the town's Prohibition history, he said.
“People used to go to Westmont to drink, and they had a hill (that) became nicknamed Whiskey Hill,” he told the village board.
Salerno, who has another Whiskey Hill location in Woodridge, said the pizza restaurant and brewery will share a common kitchen.
Salerno's will have 16 to 20 seats for dine-in, and also will offer carry out. The brewery, Salerno said, will have about 120 seats and an outdoor patio.
Trustee Michael Zadel was among the village board members enthusiastic about the project.
“Part of our strategic plan has been to try to get a brew pub or a brew house here, and this kind of fulfills all of the needs that we were looking at and the vision that we had,” Zadel said.