Welcome to Norwood Park Chamber of Commerce!

We are a historic and established community, once a pastoral and picturesque Village of Norwood Park. Many residences in the vicinity date back to the 19th century! Our historic Norwood Park Train Station, currently undergoing renovation, was built in 1907 and will continue to serve our residents for many years to come.

This year, our Chamber has taken another step on the path to the revitalization of North Northwest Highway, our major thoroughway.  Our goal is to bring in new retail, to find tenants for vacancies in the heart of Norwood Park, to beautify the existing locations, in other words - to improve the "landscape" of our business district.

How do we plan to accomplish this?

The Chamber Task Force, with the cooperation of the University of Illinois City Design Center has produced a comprehensive Final Report  on Norwood Park's business potential!  The 80 page Report includes information and data on the area'a demographics, consumer spending, existing businesses, traffic, parking, maps, etc. The process of analysis resulted in a series of recomenations contained in the Executive Summary, a "road map" of the project skilfully chaired by Randy Rollinson of LBL Strategies and Susan Kroll, retired City of Chicago planner.

Following the completion of the Report and in order to continue the mission of revitalizing Northwest Highway, a Chamberr Development Committe was formed to navigate the implementation process.

In  April 2007, a series of workshops facilitated by Asst. Prof. Abe Lentner of UIC was conducted for the local business community.  UIC students presented several proposals on how to effectively utilize the existing buildings on Northwest Highway. The possibilities are endless!  They include restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, bookstores and specialty stores.  The change, however, will not occur overnight, it will take time and capital!

Meantime, new construction will soon begin at 6060 Northwest Highway (mixed use (2) buildings) and at Nina and Avondale, the Norwood Crossing Campus.  The new construction will bring in both new residents and new retail businesses!

The Norwood Park historic Train Station renovation is in its final stages and has already attracted many potential renters.  The Park area surrounding the charming, old world train depot will become well travelled by the public.

Our Chamber will tirelessly continue the pursuit the goal of transforming our downtown area into a pedestrian friendly destination for shoppers and diners!

Ellen Wierzewski
Executive Director
Norwood Park Chamber of Commerce & Industry