Starbucks has opened in renovated space at State and Main in downtown Rockford

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A new Starbucks has opened inside a remodeled Art Deco building at State and Main streets in downtown.

The coffee shop welcomed its first customers Tuesday at 213 W. State St., on the ground floor of a three-story building painted with palm trees for a tropical exterior vibe. The national retailer’s arrival downtown has been met with excitement from fans and concern from those who worry about its impact on four nearby locally owned coffee shops.

“It’s great for downtown. Our downtown, we are able to handle national businesses and local businesses,” said Justin Fern, founding principal of Urban Equity Properties, the real estate company that owns the building and brought Starbucks in. “A healthy downtown is going to have a mix of everything: National stores, local stores, large buildings, small buildings, historic buildings, modern buildings. We need a little bit of everything to really make the whole ecosystem work.”

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The first Starbucks on the city’s west side is the first tenant of an 11,700-square-foot building renovated by Urban Equity Properties. Fern said a tenant for the upper level of the space will be announced soon.

“The building that it’s housed in had been sitting vacant for decades,” Fern said. “Now we’ve taken what was probably one of the worst buildings in the city and made it one of the best.”

He said the Starbucks space is a one-off design handled by Rockford-based Larson & Darby Group, XAJA Design of Rockford and Gensler of San Francisco.

“They teamed up and designed one of the most beautiful Starbucks nationally, truly one of the most beautiful ones you’ll see,” Fern said. “It’s a really nice, warm, cozy space. We soft opened today, and it’s already a hit today and we didn’t even do any advertising.”

The publicly traded coffee corporation enters a downtown market that already has four locally owned shops: Wired Cafe, 414 E. State St., Inzombia Coffee, 306 E. State St., Rockford Roasting Co., 416 S. Main St., and Mo’s Coffee and Cafe, 303 Mulberry St.

Fern said Starbucks also benefits the local economy with its local management team, local employees and local building owners.

“The whole notion that this money goes to some corporation far away is really b.s.,” he said. “Most of the money at this store will stay in the community and in the city.”

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The building is being renovated with support of city tax dollars. Urban Equity Properties was awarded a forgivable loan of up to $1 million by the city in May. The city also agreed to reimburse 100% of funds the project generated from the tax-increment finance district on a pay-as-you-go basis through 2031. TIF districts capture increases in property taxes that come from higher property values into a special fund that can be used for improvements.

The downtown Starbucks will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

“That is a zero grid of the entire city of Rockford,” Fern said. “It’s a high-traffic area, and I don’t think it could be on a better corner of downtown.”

Starbucks downtown | Hours and location

Where: 213 W. State St., Rockford

Hours: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas