Downers Grove Stealing Darien Businesses?

DARIEN, IL — A Darien alderman raised a concern this week that Darien may be losing businesses to Downers Grove.

"It's really critical now for us to take a very active role in trying to attract and retain businesses in Darien," Alderman Eric Gustafson said at Tuesday's City Council meeting. "I don't know if people saw, but we did lose XSport Fitness to Downers Grove... It scares the heck of out of me that they're going to continue to come over to Darien and try to steal businesses away."

XSport Fitness, 7511 Lemont Road, is moving to the plaza across the street in Downers Grove. XSport Fitness already has a Downers Grove location at 3200 Finley Road.

The business confirmed Thursday it was closing its local operation next Wednesday and opening the new one at month's end. A manager answering the phone said he would refer further questions to a higher-up.

At the meeting, Alderman Joe Kenny wondered whether the city checks to see why a business like XSport is leaving.

In response, Mayor Joseph Marchese said the city heard that XSport had issues with the space at Chestnut Court shopping center.

"One of my good friends went there. She pointed out to management that the place looks terrible. They said, 'Don't worry. We're moving to Downers Grove.'"

Dan Gombac, the city's municipal services director, said the city has spoken with XSport's owner before about possible improvements.

"When we do have opportunities to expand a business, we go after it aggressively," Gombac said. "That was something their management looked at, but they went somewhere else. There's not much we can do about that."

Kenny said Downers Grove has one inherent advantage over Darien.

"From a business owner's standpoint, there is something to be said about having a Downers Grove address," he said. "When somebody asks, 'Where's Darien?' What do we always tell them? 'It's right next to Downers Grove.' And the same thing applies here. It's not that Darien is doing a bad job at economic development. You just can't compete sometimes with certain aspects, such as a bad building owner and an address desire."

Downers Grove's population of 50,000 is more than double Darien's 22,000. Downers Grove is much older, with a traditional downtown, founded in 1832. Darien was established in 1969.