Another trendy eatery is coming to Tinley Park after village trustees approved a plan to convert a historic downtown building into a Boston Blackie’s restaurant.
The two-story building at 6775 W. 174th St. dates to the mid-1800s and housed the Vogt department store for decades before the store closed in the early 1970s, said Trustee Patrick Rea.
“It was once one of the really great department stores outside of Chicago,” Rea said.
Restaurant officials said booming Tinley Park was the perfect site for the sixth restaurant with the Boston Blackie name in the Chicago area and the first in the southern suburbs. The others are located in downtown Chicago and the northern suburbs.
The city’s Historic Preservation Commission had to sign off on the project, and renovations will be performed according to strict standards that maintain the historical integrity of the building.
The restaurant will help key ongoing redevelopment downtown and is expected to generate as much as $180,000 in sales and property taxes for the village by its third year of operation, Rea said.
Because the restaurant is being established in a tax increment financing district, the restaurant will receive about $381,000 to pay for structural improvements to the building. The restaurant is expected to open later this year or early next year.