So Long, Weird Tobacco Shop on York

When we first moved to town, there was an Anderson's bookstore right in the Elmhurst City Centre.  For real.  Then they closed down, scurried back to Downtown Naperville and a weird hookah place opened up in the same location just north of Francesca's on York.  Today?  That tobacco/hookah place is now closed and gone with the windows paper'd over and a 'for lease' sign up in front.  We lose another retailer and the associated sales tax, but we get a brand-new opportunity for something great.  I would think that parking is one of the tough parts with this location, but with the new apartment buildings gaining occupancy just north of this, there should be some demand for the space, right?

But then again, right across the street from this is that other newly renovated set of storefronts (where the old Salt Creek Pottery was located on the east side of York, just south of City Hall) that are all totally vacant, too.  Perhaps, retail isn't in the Elmhurst City Centre's future, based on all the bankruptcy activity that is taking place in the retail sector.  If you're helping shape the future of the City Centre, what can we bet on?  Restaurants and services?  And, of course, the York Theatre.  We better do everything we can to support that place.

Is it me, or are the pace of these 'So Long' posts increasing?

I posted about Bok Choy yesterday.  Earlier this Spring, we lost the Theatre History Society of America.  And the Salseria.  And right at the end of last summer, the folks at Cold Stone threw in the towel.

Interested in the storefront transitions in the City Centre over time?  Check out this tag page [So long] that goes all the way back to 2012 when I covered the closing of Play N Trade - a video game store.