Why Park Ridge?Park Ridge is an excellent place to locate any type of business: small, medium, or large. Our location within the world-class Chicago region, along with demographics conducive to everything a business needs (e.g. spending power, talented workforce, transportation infrastructure and connectedness), make us worth your consideration. Check out these highlights about our city.
Get startedPark Ridge welcomes new businesses at a range of scales in a wide variety of sectors. You may be looking to start small with a home occupation; launch your first boutique or restaurant; expand your existing business/brand into its second or third location; or build large-footprint office, logistics, retail, or mixed-use development from the ground up. Whatever the scope, we’re here to help.

The new business toolkit gives you a checklist and information about those who can be your points of contact. There are two key considerations from a regulations standpoint:

1. Is the property where you want to locate your business appropriately zoned for that activity? What steps, if any, might be required to make zoning align with what you want to do?
2. Business license. All enterprises in Park Ridge must apply for an initial business license and renew annually. Within Community Preservation and Development (CP&D), our Health Department staff processes and manages business licenses. Costs vary based on your scale and industry.

Find a good home for your businessCheck out the available commercial properties map to search for development opportunities or available commercial spaces, both for sale and for rent. Basic zoning information is available in the interactive commercial properties map, as well as broker and representative contact information.

If you want some individualized assistance in finding an appropriate space, contact CP&D to discuss in more detail what your needs are and what spaces in the city might be right for you.
Chamber of CommerceThe Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce is an important partner in economic development throughout the city. While not all businesses join or are involved with the chamber, those that do often find chamber involvement to be incredibly useful in marketing and achieving shared goals. CP&D is happy to put you in touch with Chamber representatives if interested. We are proud to work with the chamber in facilitating New Business Startups meetings with city staff, where businesses can go over the startup process, ask questions, and learn about the necessary actions from a regulatory and permitting standpoint.