In addition to celebrating the businesses that have already taken root in the growing town, Yorkville Economic Development Corporation head Lynn Dubajic announced the new arrivals at the group's annual meeting this week.

“We are certainly on everyone's radar,” she said.

A new, free-standing Italian restaurant, Amici Ristorante, will open late in 2006 on Route 34, east of Cannonball Trail. The second location for a popular Peru eaterty, Amici will have a full bar.

The Culvers restaurant chain is also coming to town. A restaurant on Route 47 in front of Menards will break ground Nov. 1. It is scheduled to open in June.

One business will be relocating to Yorkville from Bristol. Star European Imports, the tucked-away Mercedes-Benz sales and service shop, will build a 15,000 square-foot dealership and service shop in the Yorkville Business Center on Route 47. The family-owned company will also add BMWs to their roster of pre-owned offerings.

Jon Urness, who runs the shop with his son, said they hope to have the new Yorkville location open “by next year this time.”

Urness said Star is moving because their building on Cannonball Trail is “a big hunk of junk.”

Dubajic also announced a “preliminary agreement” for the city's second Walgreens, at the northwest corner of Routes 47 and 71. The drug store will anchor a larger strip mall on the site of the old Silica Sand building.

At the start of the meeting, YEDC board of directors chairman Stan Free surveyed the audience of 250 and noted that the group's inaugural gathering in 2001 attracted about 50 people.

Since then, local sales tax revenue has jumped from $1 million in the 2000-01 fiscal year to $2.2 million in 2004-05. The city's commercial and industrial assessed values have jumped from $36 million to $70 million in that same period.

Dubajic said she was pleased with all the new arrivals. New restaurants have been in high demand with local residents, and the Walgreens and car dealership are likely to generate significant tax dollars.

“We've only just begun,” Dubajic said.