A new hotel and spice shop are opening in Naperville and a gas station location in the city could be changing hands.
Genuine Hospitality’s first Tru by Hilton hotel in Illinois opened Wednesday at 1850 Diehl Road at the southwest corner of Interstate 88 and Route 59.
The 121-room hotel will be the fourth Hilton asset and the 15th hotel chain in the St. Louis-based Genuine Hospitality portfolio.
Carlos A. Madinya, director of sales for the Naperville Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Tru by Hilton is the 18th hotel operating in the city, bringing the total number of guest rooms to more than 2,300.
The opening of Tru comes at a time when the hotel and motel industry is bouncing back from the COVID-19 shutdowns and travel slump.
At a budget meeting this week, City Manager Doug Krieger said the city’s tax on hotel and motel tax made a “very impressive comeback this year, particularly in the second half of the year.”
“We expect it to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2023,” he said.
The city is budgeting $3.6 million in revenue from the tax, which Krieger said is 50% higher than what was budgeted in 2022 and 24% higher than what the city anticipates it will collect this year.
Tru by Hilton features a build-your-own “Top It” breakfast bar; a fitness center; a heated indoor pool; and premium snacks, light meal options, and single-serve wine and beer available for purchase at its 24/7 “Eat & Sip” retail market.
Kurt Furlong, chief revenue officer and partner at Genuine Hospitality, speaking in a written statement, said the hotel will be a “fantastic addition to the vibrant Naperville community.”
Spice House to open before holidays
The Spice House in downtown Naperville will open Nov. 21, just in time for home cooks and professionals to purchase fresh, small-batch spices for the holiday season, company officials said.
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Located at 15 W. Jefferson Ave., the Naperville location joins stores in Evanston and Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood and in Wisconsin in Milwaukee’s Westown community and the Milwaukee Public Market.
“Greater Chicago continues to be one of our most important markets,” company CEO Allyson Lewis said in a news release.
“When it came time to launch our first location in the western suburbs, it was a no-brainer that it would be in Naperville,” she said.
According to The Spice House, the design of the Naperville space reflects “an environment inspired by the great markets and apothecaries of the past, where aromas and color fill the store” and “allow the senses to wander in exploration.”
The Naperville shop will offer the brand’s newest in-store experiences, such as the signature Scent Experience or the Spice Bar.
In the Scent Experience, the team walks each customer through the smells and variances of 20 different spices and blends to learn about the subtleties among varieties.
The Spice Bar has a rotating assortment of four different spices to taste test each month, and customers can learn about the origins of each as well as fun facts, recipe and pairing suggestions, and differences between varieties.
Shop hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Casey’s may demolish old service station
The Casey’s Retail Co. chain is looking to expand into Naperville on property at the southeast corner of 75th Street and Plainfield-Naperville Road.
Plans are to demolish the existing Mobil service station building and car wash at 1304 Plainfield-Naperville Road and redevelop the 0.87-acre property with a new convenience store and fueling station. The car wash would not be replaced.
Because the property is zoned as a general commercial district under which automobile service stations are classified a conditional use, the demolition triggers the requirement that Casey’s obtain conditional use approval from the city before proceeding.
A Planning and Zoning Commission hearing on the request is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Naperville Municipal Building, 400 S. Eagle St.
City staff said they find the proposed automobile service station to be compatible with the area and an improvement to the existing site conditions.
Casey’s, an Ankeny, Iowa-based chain, operates more than 2,400 stores in 16 states and employs more than 43,000 people, according to its corporate website.