Stan's Donuts to open location along Higgins Road in Rosemont
Stan's Donuts & Coffee was announced Monday as the first of three expected quick-service eateries on the site of the former Gene & Georgetti suburban outpost in Rosemont.
The village board inked a lease deal Monday morning with Chicago restaurateur Rich Labriola's doughnut-and-coffee shop chain, just as Omega demolition crews were down the block finishing teardown of a three-story, 200-space parking garage on Higgins Road that was next to Gene & Georgetti. The former 18,000-square-foot restaurant/bar and attached 5,000-square-foot banquet hall met the wrecking ball in recent weeks, though much of the old bricks and mortar remained on the village-owned site Monday.
Stan's will occupy half of a proposed one-story, 8,000-square-foot building, expected to open by March 2022. The village plans to construct that structure, along with a neighboring building that would house a third new eatery, as part of a mini-restaurant row that includes an existing Giordano's pizzeria and Taco Bell.
Negotiations continue between Braden Real Estate, acting as the village's broker, and possible tenants for the other two restaurants. Officials were talking with a Chick-fil-A franchise, but the popular chicken sandwich chain will instead be opening further east along Higgins, near Cumberland Avenue, said Mayor Brad Stephens.
Redevelopment of the stretch of Higgins, just west of River Road, is being done with an eye toward providing more lunchtime options for office workers in the area, anticipating they will make a full return post-pandemic, Stephens said.
“They need places to eat that are quick-service,” he said.
The village evicted Gene & Georgetti in October over unpaid rent and taxes halfway into a 10-year lease. The 260-seat restaurant opened in July 2015 just six months after the closing of the Rosewood restaurant and banquet hall, whose owner Jim Mandas decided to retire after 25 years.