Walk down Ellinwood Street this week and you'll pass two buildings that have been promising something for years. At the corner of Lee and Ellinwood, the old marble bank sits gutted behind plywood-covered windows, a century of history stripped down to exposed steel beams. A few blocks east, near River Road, the former home of Oliveti's Italian Ristorante looks much the same as it has since a demolition crew was supposed to show up. Both are becoming restaurants. Both have been "coming soon" for what feels like a long time. And if you've been checking the windows for signs of progress, the honest update, based on the most recent city filings and local reporting, is that neither one is opening this year.
That's not a knock on downtown Des Plaines. It's a correction to a timeline that's shifted more than once, and understanding why tells you something real about what's actually happening to this stretch of downtown.
The Bank Everyone Wants Back
The building at 678 Lee St. opened in 1927 and spent most of the last century as a bank, passing through the hands of Des Plaines State Bank, Des Plaines National Bank, PlainsBank, and Huntington Bank before sitting vacant since 2019. The city bought it in December 2024 for $1.89 million with a plan already in mind: lease it to the team behind Foxtail on the Lake, the restaurant that opened in a former church at Lake Park a few years earlier through a similar public-private arrangement with the park district.
That team, led by Des Plaines restaurateur David Villegas and his company 10 Scents, settled on a name in February 2026: The Dime. Villegas has said the idea came from a research trip to New York, where he and business partner Tim Canning spotted the old Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, a bank that operated from 1859 to 2002 and built its identity around letting customers open an account for ten cents. For a building that's been a bank for most of its life, the name is a fitting bit of continuity.
The scope of the project has grown since. The building totals roughly 26,630 square feet across three levels, with dining planned for the ground floor and a mezzanine, private events on the third floor, and seating tucked into the old bank vault. The city is covering up to $12 million to bring the structure up to code, including new windows, plumbing, and fire protection, while Villegas's team is responsible for an estimated $4.5 million in kitchen equipment, furniture, and fixtures. In August 2026, the city council hired Paul Borg Construction Co. of Chicago to handle the interior work and Otto Baum Co., a specialty firm from downstate Morton, to restore the marble facade. The interior contract alone came in at just over $11 million, the lowest of three bids submitted.
The building's finances got another lift in July 2026, when the council formally declared it blighted, a designation that unlocked a Cook County property tax incentive. Instead of the standard 25% assessment rate for commercial property, the building will be assessed at 10% for its first ten years, 15% in year eleven, and 20% in year twelve, an estimated savings of $3.5 million over the life of the deal.
Here's the timeline shift worth knowing. When the restaurant's name was announced back in February 2026, city officials pointed to a March 2027 opening. By the time the interior construction contract came up for a vote in July 2026, officials were describing an eight-month build once work begins, which pushes the realistic opening into late 2027. That's not a small slip. If you've been planning a celebration dinner there for early next year, plan on it taking longer.
A Few Blocks Away, a Different Kind of Comeback
The other project sits at 1575 Ellinwood St., between Pearson Street and River Road, on the site where Oliveti's served customers for two decades before closing in 2012. A country-western concept called Firewater Saloon was announced for the space in 2018 and never opened, leaving the building empty for over a decade.
In March 2025, the city approved a $3.6 million loan to developers Miner Street Station LLC and D-4 of Des Plaines LLC, with plans at the time to demolish the two-story building entirely and put up a new one with an 8,200-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor and apartments above. Investors include the operator of Park Ridge's Harp & Fiddle restaurant, though city officials said at the time they couldn't confirm whether the new spot would carry that name.
Then the plan changed. In May 2025, the owners decided to preserve the century-old brick structure rather than tear it down, planning to reuse bricks from the original building as part of the renovated exterior. That decision, good news for anyone who'd rather see downtown keep its older buildings than lose them, also adds time. A developer on the project named Stapleton said in June 2025 that they hoped to be ready by fall 2026, while acknowledging that permitting, demolition, and construction from the March 2025 approval could take up to 18 months. As of late June 2026, reporting showed the project was still finishing plan reviews, with interior demolition permits expected to follow right after. With fall 2026 only weeks away as of this writing and demolition permits still pending that recently, hitting the original fall target looks unlikely. A more realistic opening looks like sometime in 2027, in step with its neighbor down the street.
Why the Timeline Keeps Sliding
Neither project stalled because of neglect. Both slowed down because the harder, more expensive choice, keeping the old buildings standing instead of clearing them, won out over the faster option. Restoring a marble facade from the 1920s requires a specialty contractor rather than a general one, which is why the city brought in an out-of-town firm for that piece alone. Reusing century-old brick instead of pouring a new foundation adds months to a construction schedule that a from-scratch build wouldn't need. And public financing on this scale, forgivable loans, blighted designations, county tax incentives, means the schedule is also tied to the city council's calendar. One vote on the Dime's interior contract was pushed back two weeks in July 2026 simply because three of the eight council members weren't there to vote on it.
Here's where the two projects stand right now, side by side:
- 678 Lee St. (The Dime): vacant since 2019, purchased by the city for $1.89 million in December 2024, restaurant name revealed in February 2026, interior and facade contracts approved in August 2026, opening now expected in late 2027.
- 1575 Ellinwood St. (former Oliveti's): vacant since 2012, city loan approved in March 2025, plans revised in May 2025 to preserve rather than demolish the building, plan reviews still finishing as of late June 2026 with demolition permits expected to follow, an opening originally hoped for fall 2026 now realistically pushed into 2027.
What This Means If You Live Here
Both buildings sit on the same short run of downtown Des Plaines, with the Dime anchoring the western end at Lee and Ellinwood and the former Oliveti's site closer to River Road on the eastern end. That means construction dust, occasional lane restrictions, and boarded windows are likely to be part of the downtown walk for a while longer, not weeks, more like another year. If you're still working your way around this stretch on foot, our weekend guide to downtown Des Plaines covers what's already open while you wait on these two.
If you want a preview of what these two projects might eventually feel like, Foxtail on the Lake is already open and running at Lake Park, the same operator's earlier bet on a city-owned building. It's the closest thing downtown has right now to proof that this model works.
City officials have also framed the Dime specifically as the first of several changes coming to downtown, with one alderman calling it the largest single investment the city has made in that stretch of Des Plaines to date. Whether that holds, more announcements are worth watching for, but it's a signal that the current wave of construction fencing and dust isn't the end of the story downtown is telling about itself.
Tracking projects like these, the ones that don't show up on a listing page but shape how a downtown feels to live near, is part of how our team stays close to what's happening across Des Plaines and the neighborhoods around it. If you're weighing a move here, or wondering what a changing downtown means for a home you already own nearby, the PAK Group can walk you through it. Request your complimentary home valuation and let's talk about what's next, both for downtown and for your address.
