Downtown Downers Grove's New Corners Are Built for Patio Season. They're Due in November.

The historic clock on Main Street has been gone since late July. In mid-July the contractor reported that the clock was too heavy to lift with the equipment on site and that a bigger machine would be needed. By August 14 the clock and its post had been shipped out for repairs. The Village's October 23 update said it should be delivered and reinstalled "in the next couple of weeks."

The clock is one piece of the work downtown this fall. Between the train station plaza and five new corners along Main Street and Burlington Avenue, the Village has awarded about $6.5 million in construction contracts. Almost every dollar is going to places to sit, and those places are next to either a restaurant entrance or the Metra platform. Both projects are scheduled to finish in November. That puts the first test of the new downtown in the coldest part of the year, at the tree lighting rather than on a patio.

Linda Kunze Plaza is being rebuilt at the station

The plaza on the south side of the Main Street Train Station carries Linda Kunze's name. She led the Downtown Downers Grove Management Corporation as executive director from 1999 to 2018, and before that she worked for the Chamber of Commerce. Downers Grove Magazine credited her with recruiting businesses and organizing downtown events. A plaza meant for gathering is a fitting place for her name.

The Village's project page lists new landscaping, decorative paving, masonry seat walls, gateway signage, irrigation, repairs to the clock, and a new fountain as the plaza's focal point. Copenhaver Construction holds the contract at $2,922,367.98, an amount that includes a 15% contingency. This year's work covers only the south side of the tracks. The north side comes later.

Here is where things stood in the Village's weekly updates through October:

1. October 2: The planter bed walls were up and getting their brick. The columns for the new gateway sign were in place, and the commemorative plaques were set to go back on the finished walls.
2. October 9: An underground silva cell system for the new trees' roots was installed.
3. October 16: The fountain walls had been poured, and crews were running pipes and conduits for the spray nozzles and power.
4. October 23: Brickwork on the fountain was finished, new sidewalk was going in across the plaza, and fountain piping had been run into the station basement, with the pump to follow.

The Burlington-side drop-off lane south of the station has been closed since work began the week of July 6. Anyone who uses that lane for pickups should plan on that until the project is finished.

The five corners are next to restaurant doors

The plaza gives commuters a better place to wait. The second project, the "flexible amenity areas," is about downtown's dining blocks. The Village picked five locations in its 2025 Streetscapes Plan and describes them as spaces for outdoor dining, casual seating, community gatherings, and public art.

When the Village was planning outdoor dining in 2025, its documents matched most of these sites with the businesses beside them. The Shaw Local report on the final design lists all five.

Every corner gets the same basic kit: shade structures, seat walls, landscaping, electrical power, irrigation, and foundations for public art. The concept materials published with the design also show benches, planters, bollards, gateway signs, lighting, and solar panels on top of the shade structures. The Village Council awarded the contract to Landmark Contractors, Inc. of Huntley on April 14, 2026, at $3,608,881.40. That makes this project larger than the plaza.

The power and the shade structures show what these corners are meant to be. Electricity at the curb, shade overhead, and seat walls by a restaurant door make a corner ready for outdoor tables.

The calendar runs behind the concrete

Construction started on July 6. Crews finished the east side of Main first. The seat wall at Maple was poured in mid-September, the brick knee walls on the east side were done by October 16, and black dirt was going into the east-side planters the following week. On the west side, removals did not begin until October 2. In the October 23 update, the contractor was pouring the last footings there and finishing the foundations and knee wall on Main north of Curtiss. On Burlington west of Main, the knee wall and curb were done, with sidewalk and masonry still to come.

In its October 20 priority update, the Village still listed November 2026 as the finish date for both projects. The flexible-areas page notes that all of the work depends on weather and that schedules can change.

Compare that with the outdoor dining calendar. Under the Village's 2025 outdoor dining program, the café season ran from March 15 to November 15, with a 10 p.m. closing time. If those dates still hold, the corners designed for outdoor tables will be finished right around the end of the season they were designed for. The Village has not published a separate winter plan for them. Through the winter they will be seat walls, planters, and shade structures by the doors of Pierce Tavern and The Foxtail, waiting for spring 2027.

The first crowd arrives November 27

The new spaces will most likely get their first real use during the holidays. The Village's Tree Lighting is on Friday, November 27, at 4:30 p.m. at the Main Street Train Station, the same spot where the plaza is being rebuilt. Whether crews finish before then depends on the weather and the contractor. Either way, the holiday tree will stand next to the most expensive public space downtown has had in years, and the crowd will walk past the new corners on Main to get there.

The tree has one tradition worth planning for. It's decorated with handmade ornaments from community groups, businesses, and individuals. Ornaments must be at least 8 inches in diameter, made of weatherproof material, and hung on a looped string 10 to 12 feet long. Drop them off with the ornament form at Public Works, 5101 Walnut Ave., by Friday, November 20. Public Works is open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The rest of the season is on the Downtown Downers Grove events calendar, which notes that events can change:

• Thursday, November 26: Grove Express 5K
• Friday, November 27: Tree lighting at the train station
• Saturday, November 28: Small Business Saturday
• November 27 through December 31: Candy Cane Cash
• Weekends from November 28 through December 20, 1 to 4 p.m.: Santa visits, on November 28 and 29 and December 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20
• Thursday, December 10, 5 to 8 p.m.: Merry Madness

Before all of that, the Downers Grove Park District holds its free Blodgett House Boo Fest at the Downers Grove Museum this Saturday, October 31, from 1 to 4 p.m. Trick-or-treating in the Village is on October 31 too. The Village News page says there are no set hours and that the Downers Grove Police Department recommends going out during daylight hours.

The north side of the tracks is next

Linda Kunze Plaza is only half done. The north side of the station has its own plaza project, and the Village is targeting summer 2027 for construction. A March 2025 concept showed tables and chairs, benches, a shade structure, solar structures over the bike racks, and a public art feature. The Council has not reviewed preliminary plans yet, so that list is an early concept and the final design may differ. If the November schedule holds, the tree lighting will be the first big crowd to see the finished pieces of the downtown plan. Patio season for the new corners comes in spring 2027, and the north-side construction is targeted for that summer.

The new corners on Main and Burlington are the kind of change buyers notice before the Village finishes its paperwork. If you own a home within walking distance of downtown and want to know how these projects might show up in your home's value, I'm glad to walk you through it. Start with a free, no-obligation Instant Home Valuation from Casselyn Tertell, and I'll follow up with what we're seeing in your part of Downers Grove.