PORTAGE PARK — Distinct Bath And Body, 6051 W. Irving Park Road, shut down its small storefront Saturday in preparation for a move to the Six Corners Shopping District in the spring, its owner said.
Sam Davis opened the artisan business in 2013, leaving a 20-year career at UPS to start crafting his own soaps, lotions and oils, he said. Everything he didn't produce himself, he bought in small batches from independent boutiques.
An "insurance and tax assistance company" will be moving into the space at Irving and Austin, he said, adding that the company has also signed a lease for the former home of Joie de Vivre, which operated next door at 6053 W. Irving Park Road until it closed in summer 2016.
Davis had long been eyeing a space near the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee Ave., but he wasn't able to connect with the landlord until the property ownership changed hands in late 2015, he said.
It was around that time that leaders of the Six Corners Business Association began to court him, Davis added.
"The big draw is that it'll be a much larger space, about 1,000 square feet," Davis said. "So we're going to be able to produce larger batches and carry more products."
Kelli Wefensette, the business association's director, said the plan came together in part because her staff "has been proactively marketing our shopping district to small, independent retailers for some time," she wrote in an email.
Davis, in particular, is "a local, neighborhood-minded guy and runs a gem of a business that our community enthusiastically supports," Wefenstette added.
Davis is aiming to welcome customers to the new space in the first few weeks of March, he said.
