WEST LOOP — After 2½ years in business, West Loop restaurant Más will close its doors for good this week.
The Mexican restaurant helmed by Chef Eloy Suarez, at 800 W. Washington Blvd., will officially close Saturday, confirmed managing partner David Rambhajan. The restaurant is closing because the business lost its lease as new owners purchased the building, he said.
The two-story building at Washington and Halsted was bought by West Loop-based R2 Companies for $5.3 million earlier this year. R2 Companies plans a compete a gut renovation of the building in 2017, said Matt Garrison, principal of the company.
Harold's Chicken Shack also lost their lease, Garrison confirmed. Perman Wine Selections, located in the building at 802 W. Washington, has a lease through April 2018.
"We are actively looking for a new tenant to take the space at that time," Garrison said.
The developer is in advanced discussions with "several exciting tenants" to sign leases for Class A retail space on the first floor of the building once the renovation is complete, Garrison said.
The building's second floor will be transformed into a single-tenant creative office space with a private rooftop deck and 10 dedicated parking spaces.
As part of the rehab work, R2 Companies plans to commission a "fabulous mural" for the alley and will be doing extensive work on the masonry, windows, mechanical systems and exterior of the building.
"It will be an exceptional building when it is complete next June," Garrison said.
Más, which opened in May 2014, may reopen in a new location, Rambhajan said, but owners have not made a final decision. A new location may not be in the pricey West Loop, where retail space is now "unbelievably expensive," the entrepreneur said.
"Stay tuned," he said.
To bid farewell to the restaurant, Más will host one last party in celebration of New Year's Eve on Saturday night. Tickets, which includes two drink tickets, food, party favors, live DJs and a champagne toast at midnight, are $49 and can be purchased online.
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