Archive for November, 2007
November 30th, 2007
U-Bake has opened its first store in the Rock River Valley, at 4162 N. Perryville Rd., Loves Park, in front of the Carlson Arctic Ice Arena.
The store carries raw baked goods in frozen form, which can then be taken home and baked in one’s own oven. It also stocks bulk flours and raw spices for people who want to bake from scratch. The 1,850-square-foot Loves Park store opened Nov. 5, and held its official ribbon-cutting today (Nov. 30).
U-Bake is a franchise based in Wausau, Wis. Franchise owners at the Loves Park store — Machesney Park residents Shane and Angie Huber — have owned another U-Bake store in Janesville, Wis. for the past three years. That store now will be managed by Shane’s brother Chad Huber.Â
When the Hubers first found out about U-Bake they wanted to open a store in the Rock River Valley but couldn’t find a good location at the time, said Angie Huber. A potential landlord in Janesville heard they were in the market, and asked them to open a store in Janesville. Still, they always had wanted to open another store here.
The frozen raw baked goods include pies, cookie dough and bread dough. U-Bake also stocks gluten-free doughs and sugar-free products. Of course many of its customers are people who are too busy to bake. But it also caters to people with arthritis who may have trouble baking from scratch, said Angie Huber, as well as people who live alone. “If you bake from scratch, you have to bake a whole batch,” she said. But with the frozen doughs, “you have portion control.”Â
Some U-Bake stores, including the Hubers’ store in Janesville, carry frozen entrees as well, but the Loves Park store does not. Incidentally, Shane Huber also is manager at the Kohl’s store at 6125 E. State St. in Rockford.
November 29th, 2007
My curiosity was piqued when I heard about the Perryville Virtual Office Suites at A Perryville Place, 6957 Olde Creek Road in Rockford. So when I got an invitation to an open house there, I decided to go and see for myself.
It turns out that these are offices that are available for business people on a just-in-time basis — as-needed — without requiring a longterm fulltime commitment.
A virtual office (or even a cubicle) can be leased by the hour, the day, the week, the month, or even for six months or a year at a time.  Say you have a home based company but you need a more businesslike setting in which to meet clients.  Or you work in Madison and you want to meet halfway to collaborate on a business project with someone from Barrington. Or you’re a salesperson on the road and you just need a “touchdown area” with desk, phone and wi-fi for a couple of hours so you can regroup.
Those are a few of the types of users the virtual offices are targeting.  The “touchdown areas” can be leased by the hour, for $15 per hour. Meeting rooms start at $40 per hour. Private office spaces with desk, chairs, mail service and phone service — including a receptionist to answer your phone number with your business name — can be leased in 20-hour-a-month or 40-hour-a-month packages.Â
For businesses that want a six-month-long or year-long lease to their own office with a lock there are turnkey executive packages that include furniture, telephone and Internet service, and utilities.Â
Other business services like typing, catering and videoconferencing also are available. The various-sized suites, along with lobby areas, conference rooms and restrooms, take up the entire third floor of A Perryville Place, about 20,000 square feet.
The Perryville Virtual Office Suites are owned by a limited liability company, some of whose partners are members of Summit Real Estate Development, which owns the entire A Perryville Place mixed use complex.
The virtual office suites opened for business in October. So far, nine executive packages have been leased — along with about a dozen various combinations of mail, phone, 20-hour and 40-hour packages —  said Lynn Martz, center manager.
November 28th, 2007
The Rockford Public Library has moved one step closer to buying the former Barnes & Noble building on East State Street.
The library’s board of trustees voted in a meeting Mon., Nov. 26 to approve an amended version of a real estate purchase agreement for the property, at 6685 E. State St., Rockford. The purchase agreement is not yet available to the public because it is not yet signed and final; it still is waiting for the amendment to be completed, said Emily Hartzog, community relations officer for the library. The amendment has to do with making certain dates in the agreement consistent so that if a defect were found in the building and cures were needed, those would be done prior to the closing on the sale. As of yet there’s no official target date for the deal to be complete, said Hartzog.
The library had announced earlier this year that it was looking at buying the property and moving its northeast branch there. City officials had authorized a bond sale of about $3 million to help the library. Barnes & Noble moved out of the building in November and into new digs at The District At CherryVale, a new lifestyle addition to the CherryVale Mall, 7200 Harrison Ave., Cherry Valley.
Winnebago County records for the property shows its owner as “c/o Jay A. Lipe 6685 East State LLC” at an address of 1310 Ritchie Court, Unit 24B/C, Chicago IL 60610.  According to the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessment Office, the property was sold for $2.85 million on May 10, 1996 by Sunil Puri of Rockford, to individuals Gladys B. Ross and Jay A. Lipe of 10 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago IL 60606. The two quitclaimed the property to the current owner on April 15, 2004.
(A quitclaim deed is a written document that conveys the grantor’s interest in the property to the grantee. The term “LLC” stands for “limited liability company,” a type of business organization that may be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes and restricts the partners’ potential losses to the amount invested.)
In its 2006 tax assessment, the Supervisor of Assessment Office determined the fair market value of the 1.83-acre property to be $2,860,497.
November 26th, 2007
Another Starbucks is coming to Rockford — at 7474 E. State St., near the corner of East State and Bell School Road. That’s in addition to the other Starbucks on East State, near the Mulford Road intersection.Â
The new Starbucks Coffee Co. — with a drive-through window, outdoor patio and indoor seating area — is scheduled for official opening this Friday, Nov. 30 at 5 a.m., but the store is hosting a special event the evening before, with free samples of beverages and pastries. The “friends and family” event, open to the public, is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thurs., Nov. 29.
This particular Starbucks store will be donating coffee and pastries twice weekly to The Carpenter’s Place Outreach Center, 1149 Railroad Ave., Rockford, a ministry for homeless persons.
November 20th, 2007
The Ember Restaurant and Bar is scheduled to open Wed., Dec. 5 at A Perryville Place, 6957 Olde Creek Road, Rockford. Owners Andy and Matt Ameti are brothers from Chicago; they have previous restaurant ownership experience in that city and in the Quad Cities.
The menu will include steak, seafood, ribs, pizza and pasta. The restaurant will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Bar hours are Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to midnight.
November 19th, 2007
House calls for bridal parties, eyelash perming and MP3 music for pedicure clients — all are services offered by new beauty salon Artatrish at 7088 Walton St., Rockford. Co-owners and sisters Julie and Trisha Tran opened the salon in late October; a grand opening is planned for after the holiday season. The salon offers nails, skin care, and hair care including hair extensions and permanent straightening. Walk-ins and appointments both are welcome.
Why house calls for bridal parties (which incidentally include nails as well as hair)?  Observed Julie Tran: “A bride has a lot to worry about; she doesn’t need to run around like a madwoman.”
The Tran family originally is from Vietnam; Julie’s and Trisha’s parents emigrated to Janesville in the late 1970s. Julie was born in Janesville; Trisha came to the U.S. in 1991.
November 15th, 2007
A furniture store is again open at 7340 E. State St. in Rockford. The Room Place  opened Fri., Nov. 16 in the 30,000-square-foot building formerly occupied by Leath Furniture.Â
The Lombard, Ill-based furniture retailer had viewed Rockford as a potential market for a long time, said marketing manager Valerie Berman. “We’d been looking to expand into markets we were able to service out of our current distribution center (in Woodridge) and Rockford was a good fit distance-wise.”
The location on East State also made sense for The Room Place because it previously had been a furniture store, she said. The company completely rebuilt the interior in the style of its Chicago stores. The Rockford store employs 40 to 50 people, Berman added.
Displaying complete rooms put together by professional designers, The Room Place operates under the concept “the more you buy, the more you save.” What does that mean? “You can buy each piece individually, but we have packaged it in a way so it is a better value (as a package),” said Berman.
The Rockford store — the company’s 22nd — will have its grand opening celebration on Dec. 4. Store hours are Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 pm.
November 14th, 2007
There’s a new place to get food and liquid refreshment before you go to a concert at the MetroCentre — and starting this week you can get a downtown lunch there, too.Â
Kiwi’s Cafe and Bar is open at 211A W. Elm St. in downtown Rockford, the spot formerly occupied by Quizno’s. Owner Jodi Dierks said Kiwi’s full food menu includes build-your-own sandwiches, paninis, homemade pot roast with horseradish sauce, soups and salads. It is a smoke-free establishment. As for drinks, Dierks describes it as a “cocktail kind of place” with mixed drinks and bottled beer and wine, but no beer on tap.
Regular hours are Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until midnight. For business lunches, Dierks makes the promise: You’ll get fast service. “If you want a half-hour lunch, you’re going to make it.”
November 12th, 2007
The former Fuzion Studios beauty salon in downtown Rockford has changed names and owners, but its former owners still are working there as stylists. Jennifer Kiesling, owner of J. Kiesling Hair Studio Inc. at Brynwood Square in Rockford, bought Fuzion from owners Alison and Brent Behler. She opened it as J. Kiesling Hair Studio At Fuzion, on Sept. 1.
Kiesling said she had been looking to open a second, larger location when she heard through the grapevine that the Behlers were looking to sell. The East State salon, at 4,000 square feet, had six stylist chairs and Kiesling brought in six more. All the people originally working there have stayed, she said, including the Behlers. The larger salon also offers spray tanning, and will have a makeup artist doing makeup for models, theatrical events and other needs — in the shop or on location. Both the downtown shop and the 733-square-foot Brynwood shop offer wigs, and at the Brynwood shop, customers can donate hair for children’s wigs through the “Locks of Love” program. The downtown store has an “edgy, younger, downtown” reputation which she intends to keep, said Kiesling. The Brynwood store, at 2577 N. Mulford Road, caters to more traditional tastes.
Kiesling is financing her business expansion with help from Rockford Local Development, 120 W. State St., Rockford — a private, not-for-profit economic development organization that provides gap financing for small businesses.
You’ll find Kiesling working at the Brynwood store on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays she’s at the East State store. “On Sunday,” she said, “I clean.”
November 8th, 2007
If you’ve driven past Cliffbreakers Riverside Resort the past day or so, you may have noticed there’s change afoot. The hotel’s former Comfort Suites sign is blacked out, and lettering says a new Lexington Hotel Cliffbreakers will take its place.
Owner and manager Michael Ellis announced the change Nov. 8. Ellis, who bought the resort from founder Jimmy Vitale in November 2006, told me he’d had two major components in mind when he made the purchase: to get the best possible world class chef in his restaurant, and to rebrand the hotel.
Executive chef Philippe Forcioli — former owner of Cafe Patou on Broadway in Rockford — came on board in February after working in Minneapolis as executive chef for Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
The rebranding happened this month. Lexington is a new upscale brand owned by Vantage Hospitality Group.
Cliffbreakers was a franchisee under Comfort Suites’ owner Choice Hotels, but Ellis said Lexington’s structure is a membership rather than a franchise. “Decisions that affect the members of Lexington are made by the membership…. We are charter members of the membership board that makes the decisions about what the brand standards are.”
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