This conceptual rendering shows the dining room of the new Amalfi Steak House in Elk Grove Village.
Elk Grove Village is giving a restaurateur tax increment financing dollars to help remodel a shuttered eatery and reopen it as an upscale Italian steakhouse.
Renovations have already begun at the 7,500-square-foot restaurant space at 1180 W. Devon Ave., which has been vacant since the abrupt closure of Jimmy’s Charhouse in November 2019.
Tom Cirrincione and son Ben, who own and operate the neighboring Real Time Sports Bar and Belvedere Events & Banquets, are converting the former Jimmy’s into Amalfi Steak House, so named after the famous coast in Italy.
The restaurant would offer steaks averaging $30 and Italian entrees in the $15-20 range, according to a draft menu and price points reviewed and approved by village officials.
They agreed to provide the public financial assistance — $450,000 of an estimated $1.1 million in renovation costs — in hopes of having an upscale restaurant to serve residents, according to a redevelopment agreement approved by the village board Tuesday night.
“The village needs that kind of restaurant,” said Mayor Craig Johnson, who added that the eatery wouldn’t be as upscale as a Gibson’s or Morton’s, for instance, but be “village upscale.”
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“We insisted it would meet the needs of the village,” Johnson said.
After the closure of Jimmy’s, which was leased by Tom Sizopoulos from the Cirrincione family, the restaurant space sat empty during the pandemic. But Johnson said Tom Cirrincione and village officials have been talking for the last six months about the possibility of getting TIF assistance.
The village set up the special taxing district in 2001. Property taxes paid to local governments like schools were frozen, and taxes collected above that level started going into a special village fund to pay for redevelopment projects. The TIF district is due to expire in 2024, under state law.
The village’s $450,000 payment is set to be dolled out in installments throughout the construction process.
Upgrades call for removal of a second level within the restaurant, and installation of a movable divider to separate the space for private parties, Johnson said. Besides the build-out of the restaurant, construction crews will redo the facade of the 10,827-square-foot shopping center that includes Real Time and Belvedere.
Conceptual plans, including interior and exterior renderings, were submitted to the village and included as part of the redevelopment agreement, but full plans are due by May 31.
The restaurant is set to open by Oct. 15.
