LOGAN SQUARE — Michigan-based Art Van Furniture, the Midwest's largest furniture chain, will open its first store in the city next week in Logan Square and will celebrate with a performance by Jim Belushi.
The chain, headquartered in Warren, Mich., broke into the Chicago metropolitan market earlier this year with stores in Batavia, Orland Park and Merrillville, Ind., and is planning to open another in Bedford Park later this month, according to a spokeswoman.
The 48,000-square-foot building at 2606 N. Elston Ave. — formerly Wickes Furniture — will be home to the city's first Art Van Furniture store.
The chain's namesake and founder, Art Van Elslander, will be on hand for the ribbon cutting, as will CEO Kim Yost. Chicago-native Jim Belushi will be performing with his band, the Sacred Hearts.
"The theme is Sweet Home Chicago, and we thought it'd be fun to have him there," said the spokeswoman. "We just told him what we were doing, and he was interested."
Other guests will include ESPN’s Sarah Spain, Susanna Negovan, editor and publisher of
Splash, a Sun-Times publication, Mitzi Miller, editor-in-chief of Jet, and Chandra Ram, editor of Plate magazine.
The event, starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, will be a celebration of Chicago neighborhoods and feature "tastings" from several of them.
There were no immediate plans to open another Art Van store in the city, the spokeswoman said.