Two new activewear and athleisure shops are scheduled to open fairly soon in downtown Naperville, along with at least one new fitness business. And if the thought of all that exercise makes you hungry, new restaurants are on their way, too.
Following the opening of the Free People store at 55 S. Main St. earlier this year, Free People’s activewear line FP Movement will be moving in at 215 S. Main St. by the end of April, according to Downtown Naperville Alliance Executive Director Katie Wood.
While the activewear line was established in 2012, the first standalone brick-and-mortar store for FP Movement opened in 2020, with dozens of FP Movement stores opening across the country since then.
The brand has already set up stores in Illinois, with locations in Chicago and Vernon Hills, according to the FP Movement website. Another FP Movement store is also set to come to Schaumburg later this spring.
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In addition to the clothing store, the FP Movement brand has three fitness studios open across the country, including one in Chicago. The FP Movement fitness studios offer Pilates, yoga and sculpt classes.
While the main Free People clothing line is known for boho chic styles, FP Movement offers both cozy athleisure items like hoodies and sweatpants as well as clothing like leggings and workout tops for high-performance movement. The brand, however, still maintains some of that boho chic flair through its colors, prints and loose-fitting styles.
FP Movement is not the only activewear store coming to downtown Naperville this spring. California-based athleisure and lifestyle clothing brand Vuori is set to open by the end of May at 110 W. Jefferson Ave., taking the space left vacant by the Eddie Bauer store, Wood confirmed.
Vuori, which means mountain in Finnish, started out as a failed graphic T-shirt line but was rebranded in 2015 to an activewear brand. The company has Illinois locations in Chicago, Oak Brook and Skokie as well as an outlet store in Rosemont, according to its website. Globally, there are over 100 Vuori locations.
FP Movement and Vuori are the latest stores to join the expansion of athletic wear and athleisure brands in downtown Naperville. In recent years, Naperville has welcomed a number of athleticwear and athleisure stores to downtown, including Lululemon, Regenerate Boutique, Aerie & Offline by Aerie, ALO, Athleta, Nike Naperville and Top Fashion.
A number of wellness and fitness businesses have also opened in the city’s downtown in recent years and it will be welcoming one more. Barry’s Bootcamp, a high-intensity fitness studio, will be joining that lineup of fitness businesses with a location at Main Street Promenade East at 50 S. Main St., filling a space that has been unoccupied since the Promenade opened in 2014.
Wood said that no opening date has been determined yet for Barry’s Bootcamp.
On the restaurant scene, diners can look forward to The Belmont American Steakhouse opening around the end of May or early June, Wood said. The Belmont will take over the spot of the former Catch 35 restaurant at 35 S. Washington St., which closed its doors in June 2024, seven months after the seafood restaurant announced its downtown Chicago location was shutting down. The Naperville location had been in business for 21 years.
The Belmont is the latest business from Empire Restaurant Group, which owns multiple businesses in downtown Naperville, including Fiammé, Empire Burgers + Brew and The George, which opened in October. A representative from Empire Restaurant Group did not respond to a request for comment.
Other restaurant openings coming to downtown Naperville later this year include Slyce of NY and Bonci Pizzeria. The former specializes in New York-style pizza and gyro bowls while the latter does Roman-style pizza. Slyce of NY has locations in Lombard and Skokie while Bonci, though originally from Italy, has three locations in Chicago.