East Burlington's Empty Lot Took Eight Years. The Rest of Downtown Riverside Runs on a Similar Clock.
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
How long does it take to fill two parcels on East Burlington Street? For 28 and 30 E. Burlington, the answer so far is eight years since demolition and still counting. Crews started work on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, on the lot most Riverside residents have walked past since 2018. Under the more generous estimate, the building won't open until around March 2028.
That timeline sets the pace for most of downtown Riverside right now. The apartment building, the patio-fence rules, the retail incubator and the next round of street improvements are all measured in years. The changes you can walk into this fall came from individual shop owners who opened within months.
The project at 28–30 E. Burlington St. is a five-story, 64-foot building with 22 apartments. Two of them are ground-floor live/work units, where a tenant lives in the back and runs a business out of the front. The developer is Patrick T. Leone's Lion Development II, LLC. In its groundbreaking coverage, the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark named Patrick and Mary Leone as the property owners.
The parcels were quiet well before the bulldozers came. Number 30 had been home to Coveny Lane, a home decor and beauty boutique, which moved to 7223 Madison St. in Forest Park in 2013 when its lease ended. Number 28 was a medical office. Leone bought the adjacent property first, then the office property in 2018, and demolished both buildings that year. He told the Landmark that "one building was out of use for a good 10 years, and the other one probably five or six years."
Since Aug. 21, 2026, the sidewalk in front of the site has been closed, and signs send pedestrians to the south side of Burlington. If your usual walk from the Metra station toward the Water Tower runs along the north side, that detour will probably stay for as long as the building is going up.
Taken step by step, the project's dates show how slowly downtown change moves through Riverside's process:
The two estimates come from different people. Community Development Director Anne Cyran said the construction documents list 450 days of work, "which, based on the start in August, would put us in October of 2027." She counted from an August start, while the Landmark dates the groundbreaking to Sept. 1, so her figure may run a few weeks early. Leone's estimate was more liberal: about a year and a half, which puts the opening around March 2028. Either way, the end-of-2026 target from the January 2025 approval has slipped by at least ten months.
The hearings in 2023 explain some of that pace. According to the commission minutes, residents objected to the five-story height and how it fits Riverside's character, and they raised questions about parking. The plan showed 34 spaces, 19 indoor and 15 outdoor. Staff noted that the transit-oriented development standard called for one space per unit. Riverside takes its time with debates like that.
The village sees the building as a housing type Riverside lacks. In the Landmark's report, Cyran called it "a missing housing segment in Riverside" and said it offers "another option" for people who love the community but don't want a single-family house. She also said the project "builds on the momentum" downtown is seeing.
For that momentum, Cyran pointed to new businesses, investment by longstanding businesses and property owners, the farmers market, Spring Fling and the Holiday Stroll. She also cited the completed East Burlington streetscaping. The new building is supposed to add to that list by putting more people within walking distance of the stores that are already there.
While the big project waited, two small retailers moved much faster.
June & Lark, 39 E. Burlington St. Sara Burcheri opened this curated gift shop on Aug. 1, 2026. Its stock includes household goods and home decor, along with gifts for people who are into meditation, golf and bees. Burcheri lives in Riverside. In the Landmark's profile, she said the point was to let people "grab a birthday gift, grab a hostess gift, and not have to leave Riverside to do that." She spent about 15 years in event marketing at Macy's, and she told the Landmark she plans to host events and pop-ups, rotate inventory often, and partner with local entrepreneurs who don't have a storefront of their own. Hours at opening were 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday through Tuesday are by appointment only.
Vinette, inside the Riverside Metra station at 90 Bloomingbank Road. The station's commercial space opened up when Gears2You moved its bike-repair shop to Brookfield in 2025. On Sept. 18, 2025, the village approved a three-year lease for Kristie Wagner's boutique wine shop. By March 2026, Visit Oak Park was featuring the open shop and listing bottles for retail, wine by the glass, tastings and a wine club. Hours at that time were Tuesday through Thursday 1 to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday noon to 8 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. Those are the most recent published hours we could find, so confirm them with the shop before planning an evening around a tasting.
Both shops took a vacant or underused space and opened within months. That's a very different pace from the lot across the street.
The restaurants have a deadline of their own, and it's a gentle one. In April 2026, the village adopted outdoor-dining standards that cap patio fences at 42 inches and require a minimum level of transparency. Only two existing barriers fall short. Cyran said the fence at Breakfast Hacienda and Cafe is two inches too tall. The one at La Estancia is seven inches too tall and doesn't meet the transparency requirement.
Under the policy, both have until the end of 2027 to comply. On Sept. 3, the board budgeted $8,000 through its facade improvement grant program, about $4,000 per fence, to cover the full replacement cost. Trustees can also still grandfather the existing fences instead. Some board members wanted to reimburse only half. According to the Landmark, Village President Doug Pollock argued for full coverage because "we've passed an ordinance requiring them to fix it," whereas facade improvements had traditionally been voluntary. In short, the village changed the rule and offered to pay for the fix, and it gave the restaurants more than a year to make it.
The rest of the downtown pipeline runs on the same calendar or a longer one.
If every piece of that schedule holds, the new building, the fence deadline, the incubator and the street work would all land within roughly the same 2027 to 2028 stretch. Downtown Riverside would look noticeably different about two years from now.
For now, downtown is mostly the same streets with one sidewalk detour. The Riverside Farmers' Market at Centennial Park by the Water Tower wrapped up its season on Wednesday, Oct. 7. Village events through the rest of October:
Leave the library on the 17th and you can walk down Burlington past the fenced construction site to June & Lark, open that afternoon from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
If the building at 28–30 E. Burlington has you thinking about a move within Riverside, it helps to know where your current home stands well before October 2027. Lisa Zaklan can walk you through a valuation of your home today and how the timing could work for you. Get Your Instant Home Valuation.
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