The Tinley Park Village Board voted Tuesday to approve a retail store, New Bremen Trading Post, in Harmony Square.
The store, in an 1,100-square-foot space in the Harmony Square stage building along Oak Park Avenue, will be there for at least five years, officials said. It will feature local arts, crafted snacks, seasonal beverages and Tinley Park branded merchandise.
The merchandise would also shift with the seasons and downtown Tinley Park events. It is set to open late summer or early fall, according to owner Bill Schiestel.
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Schiestel said he aims to enhance Harmony Square with the store, offering alcoholic drinks for events and charcuterie boards.
He said the store allows Harmony Square customers to access retail and stay on the plaza.
“All these kind things, you kind of had to either go across the street or do this or that and now, it’s like, right on the grounds they’re able to have this experience,” he said.
He also said he would like to offer a more permanent place for farmers market vendors to sell their products year round.
“We want to work closely with the community,” he said. “We want this to have a community vibe.”
Schiestel and his fiancée and co-owner, Elizabeth Wyllie, agreed to pay the village a $1,500 monthly license fee and 2% to 2.5% of gross annual sales monthly. Wyllie grew up and still lives in Tinley Park, and Schiestel, of Beverly, said he plans to move there soon.
Schiestel said he has not opened a business before but has experience working in the legal industry with law firms and artificial intelligence.
The board approved the liquor license, but the hours of consumption are set to depend on special event permits.
Carolyn Mitera, staff liaison for the Tinley Park Economic and Commercial Commission, said there are retail vacancies in the Boulevard and in the building that previously housed Durbin’s, but they are privately owned. She said Harmony Square has brought a lot of interest to the community in its first year she hopes could bring movement on these vacancies.
Harmony Square Plaza opened in July after more than a decade of planning.
Since its opening, the plaza has hosted concerts including well-known performers such as the BoDeans and high school bands, along with special events that attracted about a quarter million people.
Apartment variation
The Village Board Park also debated Tuesday whether to reduce the minimum required square footage for an apartment unit by more than 200 square feet and ultimately voted against the proposal.
Trustee Ken Shaw said the request would requires a larger village code change instead of approval on a case-by-case basis.
George Faycurry proposed building a 557-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in the Tinley Office Centre complex, below the minimum required dwelling size of 800 square feet.
Faycurry, who presented on behalf of property owner GFCTinley, said the request was driven by changing economic conditions and evolving land use patterns within the area.
He also said the property is in an increasingly residential area, where an office space can not continue to “reasonably function under its current zoning classification.”
“You’re giving a younger couple, a young person, the opportunity to rent an apartment that he doesn’t need a two bedroom,” he said.
Mayor Michael Glotz and Shaw said Faycurry has other code-compliant options that would just require more work.
“Going to the standards for approving a variance, one of the standards is that the property can not produce a reasonable outcome, and that’s simply not the case here,” said Shaw.
Glotz said this request fell too far beneath the minimum requirement, and he argued if the village approved the variance, it would open the floodgates to similar requests and set a bad precedent.
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“That’s why there’s a number,” he said. “It gives the board reasonable request for variance from that threshold. The threshold’s been set long before we’ve been on this board, and I agree with it. I think 800 is a really good number.”
“We’re worried about how the economics are for Tinley Park,” he said.