The southwest corner of Roosevelt and Finley roads held a shuttered Dania furniture store, an old bank and a few auto service shops for years. The Daily Herald described them in June 2025 as "fading into obsolescence near the border of Lombard and Glen Ellyn." On September 4, 2026, the Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce held a 4 p.m. ribbon cutting at 515 W. Roosevelt Road with the Village President, trustees and the fire and police departments, welcoming Burj Plaza as "a new shopping and dining destination."
That ribbon cutting is the most visible part of a bigger change. Up and down Roosevelt Road, Lombard is getting its next set of restaurants without tearing much down. The new places are moving into the buildings that are already there: the furniture store, the bank, a former KFC, an old tile showroom and a Pep Boys. In early October, most of the corridor is still under construction, in permitting, or waiting on a firm opening date. You can watch it fill in over the next few months, but it isn't yet a place to plan a whole evening around.
What used to be on these lots
The Village of Lombard's development update, dated September 25, 2026, shows how much of this work is reuse. At Burj Plaza, the 10.8-acre site sold in December 2024, and demolition and construction started in 2025. Retail, service and restaurant spaces are going into the part of the old Dania building facing Roosevelt Road, and a banquet facility will take up most of the building to the south. The former Fifth Third Bank is being remodeled into a Bumper 2 Burger with a drive-thru, and the old auto glass building will become a smoking establishment. The only building fully removed was an auto repair shop, razed to make room for parking.
Project attorney Mark Daniel described the same approach to the Daily Herald: "Those are being remodeled and retrofitted to use as much of the buildings that we can. The same is true of Dania and the warehouse."
East of there, the pattern repeats.
| Former use | Address | What's planned | Status as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dania furniture store | 505-515 W. Roosevelt Rd. | Burj Plaza restaurants, shops and banquet hall | Plaza had its ribbon cutting Sept. 4; most tenants still listed as planned |
| Fifth Third Bank | Burj Plaza corner | Bumper 2 Burger drive-thru | Planned for 2026 |
| Century Tile | 747 E. Roosevelt Rd. | Multi-tenant building, including Jabal Coffee House | Under construction |
| KFC | 810 E. Roosevelt Rd. | Chai Ho Jai cafe with a new patio | In permitting |
| New construction | 855 E. Roosevelt Rd. | Creekview Plaza: Syrup & Saffron, Nashmi, Ghareeb Nawaz | Under construction |
| Pep Boys | 865 E. Roosevelt Rd. | Restaurant and retail, anchored by Octane Lounge | Being converted |
The planned businesses fall into two groups. One is at the west end near Finley Road, which Daniel called the "gateway into Lombard" off I-355. The other runs through the 700 and 800 blocks of East Roosevelt.
The west end: a plaza built for a full roster
When Daniel presented Burj Plaza to Lombard's plan commission, he said the center was "designed to host 12 or 14 tenants in addition to the banquet center." The Village's September list names 14 businesses besides the banquet facility, the top of that range. Ten of them serve food or dessert.
The Village lists these food tenants for Burj Plaza:
- Usmania, a Pakistani restaurant
- Karahi Boys, a Pakistani restaurant
- Al Manakeesh, a Palestinian restaurant
- Shelby's, a Middle Eastern restaurant
- Dosa Inn, a vegan Indian restaurant
- MFC, a fried chicken restaurant
- Milk Cake Bakery, a cafe with desserts
- Melt n Dip, a dessert shop
- Panwaari, a dessert restaurant
- Bumper 2 Burger, in the former bank
The rest of the roster is Platinum Cuts barbershop, Easy Suites salon suites, Gulf Fragrances perfumery and Lyla Lounge.
Three of these places are dessert spots, and the Village gives the most detail about two of them. Melt n Dip, at 557 W. Roosevelt Road, serves crepes, waffles, Italian gelato and drinks made with 100% Belgian chocolate. Panwaari, at 493 W. Roosevelt Road, serves paan, drinks and desserts inspired by South Asian food. Milk Cake Bakery adds a third. Together they make the west cluster a dessert stop as much as a dinner one.
Plenty of signs, few confirmed openings
A plaza's ribbon cutting is not the same as its kitchens opening, and the gap here is wide. The Chamber celebrated Burj Plaza as a whole without naming which tenants were serving. Burj Plaza's own tenant pages assign spaces to several restaurants, including Usmania at Unit 541, Shelby's at Unit 565, Milk Cake Bakery at Unit 573, Dosa Inn at Unit 581 and Karahi Boys at Unit 593. None of those pages lists Lombard hours or an opening date.
Melt n Dip looks closest to opening. Its online ordering page lists 557 W. Roosevelt Road and a noon opening time, but when we checked in early October it said it was not accepting online orders, so that page alone doesn't confirm the shop is serving yet.
The banquet hall has slipped the most. In June 2025, the Daily Herald reported a planned capacity of up to 1,500 people, and Daniel said he hoped to have it "open and operating by Memorial Day 2026." Memorial Day has come and gone, and the Village's September 25 update still lists the banquet facility as a planned 2026 opening.
The roster has also shifted a little. The Village's list includes MFC, while the tenant roster on Burj Plaza's site lists Mashoor instead, and neither source explains the difference. For anyone keeping track, the tenant lineup is still settling.
The east end: a rooftop, a short move and a former KFC
Creekview Plaza at 855 E. Roosevelt Road is the only project on this list built from scratch: a two-story, 14,800-square-foot commercial building. The Village calls its upstairs restaurant "one of the most unique and exciting parts" of the project.
That restaurant is Syrup & Saffron. It describes itself as a 100% zabiha halal Mediterranean brunch spot on an 8,000-square-foot rooftop, and it plans to turn the rooftop into a private event space in the evenings. The menu leans on Mediterranean ingredients in familiar brunch dishes. The short rib shakshuka, for example, is eggs baked in tomato, red pepper, harissa, cumin and smoked paprika, topped with marinated feta and short ribs and served with grilled pita. The site's header still reads "Opening Soon" even though the same page says reservations are open online, so the first service date is unconfirmed.
Two more restaurants are planned for the building. Nashmi will serve Jordanian food. Ghareeb Nawaz, a Pakistani and Indian restaurant, is already open at 833 E. Roosevelt Road and will move into Creekview once the buildout is done. That move is only a couple of storefront numbers down the same stretch, so regulars won't lose a place to eat while the new building fills in.
The rest of the east cluster is in earlier stages:
- Jabal Coffee House will be one of the first tenants in the multi-tenant building going up on the former Century Tile property on the south side of Roosevelt. The chain's locations page gives the address as 751 E. Roosevelt Road and still says "Coming Summer 2026," so the timing looks out of date.
- Chai Ho Jai is going into the former KFC at 810 E. Roosevelt Road. The owner is working through permits for minor interior changes and a new patio on the building's northeast corner.
- Octane Lounge, a car-storage and lounge spot for car enthusiasts, will anchor the restaurant and retail conversion of the former Pep Boys at 865 E. Roosevelt Road.
A lounge for people who love cars, in a building that used to sell car parts, is a fitting tenant for a stretch of road that's being rebuilt one former auto-era building at a time.
Planning a visit this fall
Since most of these places don't have firm opening dates yet, a few habits help:
- Look up Melt n Dip first. It's the only Burj Plaza tenant with a Lombard ordering page that lists hours, so it's the likeliest place to try first for dessert on the west end.
- Check hours before you drive. For the other Burj Plaza restaurants, look at each one's own page or ordering link before heading over, since the plaza listings don't include hours.
- Plan brunch reservations around the opening. Syrup & Saffron already takes reservations, so you may be able to book a table before the restaurant officially says it's open.
- Keep an eye on the Village's update page. Lombard's development story map is updated as projects move from permitting to construction to opening. It's the most complete public record of what's coming to Roosevelt Road.
If you're weighing what this new stretch of restaurants might mean for a home near Roosevelt Road, Paul Baker and Team Baker follow these Lombard projects as they open, block by block. Contact Us and we'll talk through how they fit into your plans.
