Choice should please community concerns for unique retail
By Ronald Roenigk
Publisher
The last large space available on Armitage Ave. in Lincoln Park is filling up, and one new tenant is sure to please those seeking unique new retail in this white-hot commercial strip. The Paper Source has signed a lease for over 4,400 square feet in what once was Armitage Hardware, 919 W. Armitage Ave.
The beauty pageant of commercial tenants for this location brought 46 bids for this prime piece of real estate. What was once a 100-year-old general merchandise and hardware store was perhaps the last great space expected to be available on the chic Lincoln Park street for awhile. “We had been trying to get onto Armitage for years,” said Jim York, Paper Source’s young chief financial officer during a walk through the site. “When I heard this space was available I came right over. We couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity. We hope to be open by April 1 and host a grand opening by April 15.”
“My wife and daughter were key in deciding on which offer to accept,” said Daniel O’Donnell, owner of the property and Armitage Hardware which once graced the street. “They had shopped in their other stores and loved them, so we wrote a discount into the lease for them and the deal was closed,” kidded O’Donnell about the 46 bids he got for his property. “There were a lot of national chains that were willing to pay top dollar but we wanted something special for this location. It is not just another piece of property in our eyes.”
The O’Donnell family will also retain one storefront where they will continue to operate their Weber Grills BBQ Pit and Combi Stroller stores. Another of the storefronts will be taken by National City Bank for a new branch office.
Founded in Wilmette in the early 1980s, Paper Source is the brain child of Sue Lindstrom, whose frame shop there had catered to North Shore artists. A buying trip to Japan exposed Lindstrom to the lush world of custom-made paper and sparked the business. In 1983 she opened a Paper Source store at 232 W. Chicago Ave., followed by one in Oak Park and then Evanston. The company has now opened stores on the west and east coasts with a goal of eventually opening 100 stores in the group.
One key move was bringing in York as CFO and an equity partner. He has an energy for the effort beyond what his Northwestern MBA may offer, and was an investment banker here in Illinois prior to his retail efforts. He handles the administrative side while Lindstrom travels the world looking for unique products to feature in her line of custom stationery, envelopes, wrapping papers, invitations, cards and photo album books.
Shoppers can expect to find one-of-a-kind items. “We contract for and manufacture all of our own papers,” said York. “We have over 10,000 items in our stock and everything we do is custom ordered.” If you can’t see yourself paying up to $36 per sheet for some specialty papers—Office Depot is located just over on Ashland and Wellington avenues. It’s high end product you’ll find at the Paper Source. You’ll be the envy of your letter-writing friends with your paper silk-screened by hand, or your paper with a custom color created just for your job. These papers are intended for cards and letters whose feel and look will tell a story long before any ink is put to them. They are intended to express cherished moments and note special events; the written items most likely will be saved by the recipient forever as they express important moments in people’s lives.
The Paper Source also has items that won’t bust the party budget just on the invitations. They also carry rubber stamps with a variety of designs and they do a flourishing business of nontraditional wedding invitations. They also hold workshops in book-binding, box-making, paper and print-making, calligraphy and making invitations. For more details on the store and its products visit www.paper-source.com. |
