New restaurant puts off moving into shopping center
By Janet Lundquist jlundquist@stmedianetwork.com April 8, 2012 6:34PM
Updated: May 10, 2012 8:03AM
PLAINFIELD — A new restaurant may not move into the space vacated by Limestone Brewing Co. anytime soon, as the potential new tenant says he found the space trashed during a walk-through with the landlord.
Limestone Brewing, which was in the North Plainfield Crossing shopping center, 12337 S. Route 59, announced it was moving its location to Aurora after a conflict with the building’s landlord, Ardmin Properties.
Steven Cin, managing partner of Public Brewing Co., a new establishment looking to open in Limestone’s former space, said he never has seen such significant damage and destruction in 20 years in the industry.
Doors were removed, wires and pipes cut, walls knocked down, Cin said.
“They cut the bar in half, I don’t mean vertically, I mean horizontally,” Cin said. “It was not a pretty sight when I walked through.”
Jan Isley, an owner of Limestone, said they did not destroy the interior of their former space but had to make some changes — including removing a wall — in order to move their brewery equipment.
“I hired professional movers and contractors so that we could carefully move our assets out,” Isley said. “We even hired security guards there 24 hours to watch the property through the move until we were definitely out of there to make sure no one got in there and did any damage. We were extremely careful.”
Isley said everyone involved with Limestone was sad to leave Plainfield.
“We wanted very much so to stay in the community,” she said, adding that the building is in foreclosure and bankruptcy and through the bankruptcy Ardmin rejected their lease. “I made many repeated lease proposals to the landlord. I was begging him to pay rent.”
Now Isley and her partners are focusing on their new space, next to the Comedy Shrine at 4030 Fox Valley Center Drive in Aurora. They hope to open in the new location, which includes a 5,000-square-foot outdoor patio, within a few months.
Cin and his group own Tommy Nevin’s Pub in Naperville, Frankfort and Evanston, Pete Miller’s Seafood and Prime Steak restaurants in Evanston and Wheeling and Irish pubs in Willowbrook and Wheaton.
Cin said he thought he could open Public Brewing Co. in Plainfield by Easter but now says that is not possible.
He is waiting for cost estimates to fix the damage but said he isn’t sure he wants to invest the money to spruce up the rental property.
While the space in North Plainfield Crossing may not work, Cin said he would like to open a restaurant in Plainfield.
“I would definitely say that Plainfield is one of our top priorities,” Cin said. “And if we can’t figure out how to do this location, there’s a ton of other vacancies within Plainfield that would fit our purposes.”
