The long-awaited opening of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rantoul comes Wednesday.

Store manager Rhonda Grisamore said the new store at 845 Broadmeadow Road will have many features the old store at 2040 Lon Drive doesn't.

First off, a third of the store will be devoted to food, with a grocery, deli, bakery, produce and meat departments and a full line of frozen foods.

Other features include an eye care center, a Woodforest National Bank branch, a hair salon, a Subway restaurant, a one-hour photo lab, a phone center and a tire and auto service center, plus a greatly expanded electronics department.

The grand opening ceremony will be at 7 a.m., with doors opening about 45 minutes later. Associates and their families will get a sneak peek Monday with "family night" scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m.

Several prize drawings are planned throughout the day Wednesday, and University of Illinois women's basketball coach Jolette Law is expected to attend the opening.

The new store will employ 250 people, roughly 60 percent of them full time. That compares with about 116 employees at the old store.

"We've been hiring the last two weeks," Grisamore said last week. "We're still looking for maintenance people, for overnight and for the day, and we're still looking for cashiers."

The old store is slated to close at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Many of the items are marked down in hopes they won't have to be moved. The old store has been sold to Taylor Studios, a company that designs and produces museum exhibits, for use as a production facility.

Centrue to close Urbana office

Centrue Bank plans to close its office at 1708 S. Philo Road, U, on Aug. 31 and consolidate it with its office at 1001 S. Neil St., C.

"We feel that we can better serve our customers from one consolidated location," Centrue President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Daiber said.

Two teller positions will be eliminated as part of the consolidation, and Centrue plans to sell the Urbana building, Daiber said.

Centrue recently closed in-store branches in Coal City and Dwight and consolidated those operations into nearby Centrue locations.

Grill & Chill sets grand opening

The new DQ Grill & Chill restaurant at Mattis Avenue and Olympian Drive in Champaign has set its grand opening for Thursday through next Sunday.

Thursday will feature a Children's Miracle Network fundraiser, with proceeds from every Blizzard sold that day being donated to the network, which raises money for 170 children's hospitals.

From Friday through Sunday, the restaurant will offer "buy one, get one free" promotions on various DQ items.

DQ Grill & Chill is an International Dairy Queen concept featuring DQ soft-serve treats and an all-new food menu. The local restaurant is owned and operated by longtime franchisees Terry and Barbara Krueger.

New office pops up

Have you noticed the new office building on the north side of Bloomington Road just west of Mattis Avenue in Champaign?

It's slated to be the new home of NHRMA Mutual, which provides workers' compensation coverage to long-term care facilities, small rural hospitals and facilities for the developmentally disabled.

Alan Gapinski, NHRMA Mutual's chief executive officer, said the organization employs 20 to 25 people at its current location in Suite 201 of 2110 Clearlake Blvd. in Champaign's Corporate Park Centre.

The new building is also on Clearlake Boulevard near its intersection with Bloomington Road, and Gapinski hopes his organization can move in by Oct. 1. Midwest Provider Insurance Co., which provides liability insurance to nursing homes, will also occupy the building.

Roundtable to move

Roundtable, a full-service advertising agency with third-floor offices in the old Illinois Central train station at 116 N. Chestnut St., C, plans to move to the University of Illinois Research Park later this month.

CEO Larret Wright said the firm, which employs 12 people, expects to move Aug. 29. The new offices will be in the Information Technology Center at 2021 S. First St., C – the southernmost building in the research park, where Trusted Computer Solutions is based.

New development

Hallbeck Homes is building a new office/warehouse building in the Westwood Trace Commercial Park, near the corner of Springfield Avenue and Staley Road in Champaign.

The new building is at 4140 Fieldstone Road, north of the MetriTech building and south of the Champaign-Urbana Radio Group.

Dan Hallbeck, president of Hallbeck Homes, said the 11,250-square-foot building is set up for three tenant businesses, and he expects the building shell and parking lot to be ready by September.

With that, the only remaining space to be developed will be the 4-acre lot at the northeast corner of Staley and Springfield, which Hallbeck said is intended for office or retail development.

Agency finds new shelter

The Rhonda Mitchell Agency of Shelter Insurance has moved to new quarters at 902 N. Country Fair Drive, #5, C. The agency was formerly at 202 S. Neil St., C.

Debra Pressey's "It's Your Business" column will return on Aug. 12.