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How Can Portage Park Draw More Businesses? Suggest Ideas At A Forum Monday

By Alex Nitkin | March 17, 2017 5:42am
 The forum will tackle how to attract businesses to commercial strips like Addison Street in Irving Park Road in Portage Park, which are littered with vacant storefronts.
The forum will tackle how to attract businesses to commercial strips like Addison Street in Irving Park Road in Portage Park, which are littered with vacant storefronts.
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Facebook / West Portage Park Neighbors Association

PORTAGE PARK — The West Portage Park Neighbors Association will hold a special "economic development forum" Monday to spark a conversation on how neighbors can help draw businesses back to the area's defunct commercial strips.

Part of the meeting will be dedicated to parsing out the potential impact of Starbucks, which looks poised to open an outpost on the site of a long-vacant lot at the corner of Irving Park Road and Central Avenue.

The developer Sumac Inc. is waiting on a special use permit to build a home for the Seattle-based chain. Owners of neighboring coffee shops like Portage Grounds and Perkolator, meanwhile, have warned that the new competitor could drive them out of business.

Although Starbucks hasn't confirmed its interest in the site, the company will send a representative to give "a presentation on how their stores interact in the communities they serve and what services they provide," said David Feller, the president of the neighborhood association.

The group has also lined up Bernita Johnson Gabriel from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office of neighborhood relations to lead "a discussion on how we can revitalize our business corridors and how the city provides support for small businesses," Feller said.

Finally, those in attendance will hear from restaurateur Dan Latino, whose Easy Street Pizza & Beer Garden is set to open sometime in April.

The forum will kick off at 7 p.m. Monday at the North Side Gospel Center, 3859 N. Central Ave.

Meanwhile, the Portage Park Neighborhood Association is planning to meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday night, with presentations from Bistro 6050's Chris Touwaide and Carrie Lawlor, from the Norwood Park Seniors Network.