Recession sends Chicago Boutique Owners Packing

The Chicago Tribune reports boutiques closing in Chicago:

In Lincoln Park, one of Chicago's wealthiest neighborhoods, about two dozen stores have gone dormant in the past year on the prime shopping strip along Armitage Avenue between Halsted Street and Racine Avenue. Among the casualties: Fresh or Faux, Moonlight Graham and Entendre Couture closed. She Boutique left to consolidate with its Highland Park location, where rent is cheaper. And the little cottage that housed Ethel's Chocolate Lounge, a Mars Inc. venture, stands empty.

The biggest eyesore sits at the west end of the street where the Armitage Collection, a 40,000-square-foot mini-mall conceived during the boom, remains vacant but for a hair salon that relocated from down the street. The project, one of Chicago-based M Development LLC's ventures, is battling a foreclosure suit. Officials at M Development didn't return calls seeking comment.

Great moments in Blue America.