Gateway Square Is Filling Up Before the Renovation Even Starts

"The space was very tired," Ramis Memishi told The Hinsdalean in September. "There was a lot of deferred maintenance that needed to be addressed right away."

Memishi manages Gateway Square for Five Kings Properties. The company bought the York Road and Ogden Avenue center in 2025 and plans to rebuild the courtyard, update the signage and color scheme, repave the parking lot and add new lighting. None of that work has started. The village still has to approve it, and the target is "next year."

The shops are coming first anyway. Gateway Square has been at that corner since 1985, and it is being rebuilt from the inside out. Several small owners have signed leases, built out their spaces and opened while the courtyard they face still looks the way it did last year.

Who has already moved in

The center is two one-story buildings with about 38,800 square feet and 246 parking spaces, according to the Hinsdale Journal. Here is where the newer and growing tenants stood as of early October 2026:

Kozlow opened The Book Nook after her mom suggested a children's bookshop last year. "That week I created an LLC," she said. She has lived in Hinsdale since February 2020 and picked every title on the shelves herself. She plans to add book subscriptions, book clubs, regular story times and author readings.

Paris312 has sold online for 10 years. Its first store, in Lincoln Park, closed several years ago because the company outgrew the space and because of COVID. Production then moved to a center in West Town, which is still running. The Gateway Square store is the company's return to a physical storefront. The retail side faces the courtyard. The production side faces the parking lot and holds giant helium tanks and bins of ribbon, confetti and balloons, with 20 shades of teal and blue alone.

I Design Salon is the tenant that stayed. It is a longtime Gateway Square business, and it moved to a bigger unit in February instead of leaving. "It's just a different vibe," Zayed said of the new space.

Kozlow said the businesses that opened at Gateway Square in the past year are all female-owned. "We are partnering to make sure we bring Gateway back to its glory days," she said.

Why the tenants are betting on a courtyard that isn't finished

The public record shows why a business would sign before the renovation. It comes from Sage Wellness Sanctuary's Plan Commission hearing on Dec. 10, 2025.

Sage needed a special use permit to run a physical fitness facility and health spa at 777 N. York Road, Unit 23, which is in Hinsdale's B-1 Community Business District. At the hearing, Vanessa Palmer said the neighboring hair salon brings in customers who also fit Sage's business. She called the courtyard an area with "significant potential" that was underused, especially in warmer months. She also said Sage had already talked with the property owner about landscaping and signage.

Commissioners saw the same opportunity from their side. Commissioner Krillenberger said the use could "serve as a positive traffic generator for the center, which currently has several vacant spaces." Commissioner Willobee noted that the center has had fitness, physical therapy and food service tenants over the years. He raised parking briefly and said the proposal met code.

Village staff told the commission that the new owner was working through earlier code enforcement issues, including trees removed between the two front entrances. Staff said the village did not remove those trees and that the owner plans to bring forward improvements, possibly including landscaping and updated signage.

So the tenants are not waiting for a finished center. Each one that opens brings in customers for the next. A salon customer might walk past a children's bookshop. A parent at a birthday party might pick up balloons on the way out. That foot traffic is what makes a better courtyard worth building.

How long one opening actually takes

Sage's approvals are the clearest public timeline for a single Gateway Square tenant, and they show the gap between "approved" and "open":

1. Dec. 10, 2025. The Plan Commission votes unanimously to recommend Sage's special use permit. Palmer says the project is fully designed and the contractors are ready, with an opening expected in "late spring or early summer, subject to construction."
2. Jan. 20, 2026. The Village Board approves the permit 4-0. The minutes describe no changes to the building or site for this tenant.
3. Sept. 17, 2026. The Hinsdalean reports that Sage is set to open "next month."
4. Now. Sage's own site says "Opening October 2026" but gives no specific date.

That is roughly ten months from the village's final vote to an opening month, for a space that needed no exterior changes. The plans include multisensory meditation suites, contrast therapy rooms with saunas and cool mist showers, wellness workshops, a retail boutique and an elixir bar. Most of the business runs on class packages and monthly or annual memberships. The meditation rooms are open to adults and children. Like Paris312, Sage has a Lincoln Park history: Palmer told commissioners the team previously ran a wellness facility there.

If a single interior buildout took this long, the center-wide refresh still waiting on approval is likely to take longer.

The spaces still waiting

The courtyard is not the only thing the renovation is meant to fix. Two of the center's best-known spaces are still empty: the former Hua Ting and the two-story restaurant space that was Fox's Pizza until 2018. The village's business list, current as of Aug. 10, 2026, marked two units at 777 N. York Road as vacant.

Memishi has said those spaces should become restaurants. "We think there is such incredible potential to include restaurants that can thrive throughout the day but also into the evening," he said. The tenants who have opened so far are mostly daytime businesses: a bookshop, a party supply store, a salon and a wellness studio. A dinner tenant would keep the center busy after those close.

The village has been offering ideas. At a special meeting on May 20, 2026, Memishi showed the Economic Development Commission his early concept plans to rebrand and redevelop the property. Commissioners responded positively to the overall look and to a proposed entrance gateway off York Road. They suggested he consider renaming the center "Gateway on York" and named Foxtrot and The Publican as businesses they would like to see there. Those were ideas from commissioners. Nobody has announced a lease, and the rename was also only a suggestion.

What has to happen before 2027

The September Hinsdalean story lays out the refresh: a rebuilt courtyard, modern signage, a repaved parking lot and new lighting. The goal is to make the center "more inviting for people who are driving by, people who might be walking around the street." Memishi said Five Kings is working with the village on the approvals needed to start. "No surface is being left untouched," he said.

Until those approvals arrive, Gateway Square will look like two eras at once. Tenants are opening in new storefronts around a courtyard that hasn't been rebuilt yet. The next public milestone is the owner's improvement plan coming before the village. The next private one is Sage opening its doors at Unit 23.

Watching a shopping center fill up before its renovation is the kind of local detail that shapes how a nearby home is priced. When a corner like York and Ogden starts changing, Second City Agents tracks it block by block. If you're thinking about what that change could mean for your home, schedule a free market consultation and we'll go through it with you.