Bell Works Hoffman Estates Keeps Office Hours. Some of Its Tenants Don't.

What is open at Bell Works Chicagoland on a Saturday afternoon?

The food hall is closed, along with its bar. You can still book a golf simulator bay, shop for Indonesian textiles until 5 p.m. or sit down to a hosted party game until 11 at night. The former AT&T campus at 2000 Center Drive is public, but it runs on two clocks at once. Which one you need depends on why you are going.

Bell Market Runs on the Tenants' Week

Bell Market opened in summer 2025 with five counters. Honeybell Bakery & Cafe handles coffee and pastries, Broadfork Greens + Grains serves salads and bowls, and Jozu offers poké, ramen and robata. Yeeroz makes gyros, and Beef & Bird does burgers and chicken sandwiches. The Daily Herald reported that RBC Hospitality partners Richard Corbo and Chad Spencer brought the concept to Hoffman Estates. Bell Works describes Beef & Bird as Spencer's passion project. All five counters are still listed on the operator's site at the Center Drive address, with current menus.

The posted hours are where the schedule gets narrow. The Bell Works directory lists Bell Market at 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and closed Saturday and Sunday. The counters' own pages are narrower still. Honeybell, Broadfork, Jozu and Beef & Bird each post Tuesday through Thursday service from 3 to 8 p.m., and Yeeroz posts Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The two sources don't fully agree. The same directory entry still calls Bell Market "coming soon," so its hours may not have been updated since the pop-up. Check the counter you want before you go, especially on a Monday or Friday.

Both sources agree on two points. The weekend is off, and Tuesday through Thursday evenings get the longest hours. Those are the evenings when the bar menu of wine, draft and packaged beer, and seltzers sees the most use. The Oct. 1 event listing also advertises a 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour at Bell Market.

Every Public Event This October Lands Between Tuesday and Thursday

The building's October calendar follows the same weekday pattern. Here is every public event posted for the month, with the day of the week added:

None of these fall on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday. The table leaves out the Oct. 8 social hour, which is open only to Bell Works tenants and coLab members.

A few listings have details worth knowing before you go. The Oct. 8 salsa class is free. It starts at 5:30 p.m., with social dancing from 6:30, so a beginner can take the lesson and stay for the dancing that follows. Watercolor Wednesday is led by the building's artist-in-residence, Cristina of La Vida en Color, and the listing refers to registered guests, so sign up in advance. At Vinyl Night, DJ Groove Thang runs a record pop-up alongside the set from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Oct. 28 pair is the most family-friendly event of the month. Trick-or-Treat Around The Block invites tenants and the community to bring kids in costume to The Square to trick-or-treat with participating tenants. The building's annual Halloween party follows, this year with a 90s theme. Both happen on a Wednesday afternoon, so families coming after school will want to arrive close to the 3 p.m. start.

The weekday timing makes sense given what the building is. Phase one of the redevelopment is nearly fully leased with office tenants, according to the Daily Herald. Events built around a 4 p.m. happy hour reach the people already working in the building. Neighbors can join them, as long as they come on those days.

The Weekend Belongs to a Different Set of Tenants

Once Bell Market closes for the weekend, the building still has life, and it comes from tenants with their own schedules. According to the Bell Works directory:

• Swing Loose rents indoor golf simulator bays by the hour, each holding up to six people. It's open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
• Game Night Out runs private, host-guided party game experiences daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., by reservation only.
• LeGenda sells Indonesian foods and handmade goods, including Sumatran songket, Balinese woven fabrics and Papuan noken bags. It's open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.
• Party Cycle Movement holds indoor cycling rides on Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 11 a.m., booked through its app.
• It Gym offers small-group fitness classes, with a Saturday window from 7 to 9:30 a.m.
• FitLab, powered by Kinema Fitness, is open to the local community as well as tenants and gives members 24-hour access.

A Saturday at Bell Works means a reservation, a class or a shopping stop. It doesn't include lunch at the food hall. Lunch is a Tuesday-through-Thursday plan.

Saturdays This Fall Fill Up From the Village Calendar

The weekend days missing from the Bell Works calendar are full on the village's own. Every date below is a Saturday:

1. Oct. 3: Fire Department open house at Station 23, 1300 Westbury Drive, 1 to 4 p.m.
2. Oct. 10: Fire Department open house at Station 21, 225 Flagstaff Lane, 1 to 4 p.m., with a ribbon cutting and the announcement of the Sled Hill Naming Contest winner.
3. Oct. 10: The Cultural Awareness Commission's free Hispanic Heritage Day Fiesta at Village Hall, 1900 Hassell Road, 2 to 4:30 p.m., with dance, food, music and a piñata for children. The village asks for an RSVP by Oct. 2.
4. Oct. 17: The Hoffman Estates Park District's Haunted Hoffman Family Fest, with free general admission.
5. Nov. 7: The free Public Works Open House & Pumpkin Smash at 2305 Pembroke Ave., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with snowplow rides, vehicle displays and pumpkin composting.

Put the two calendars together and Hispanic Heritage Month gets a full week. It starts with Watercolor Wednesday at Bell Market on Oct. 7, continues with Sip, Shop, & Salsa and the free Arthur Murray class on Oct. 8, and ends with the village fiesta on Saturday, Oct. 10. Halloween splits the same way. Haunted Hoffman takes a Saturday, and Bell Works' trick-or-treat lands on a Wednesday afternoon 11 days later.

The West Wing Could Change the Clock

The hours described above apply to the east side of the building. In late June, Mayor Bill McLeod and Inspired by Somerset Development President and CEO Ralph Zucker took part in the ceremonial demolition of the wall between the east and west wings. The Daily Herald reported on June 25 that more than 500,000 square feet on the west side would be unlocked in the coming months, making room for dozens of office, retail and hospitality tenants. When finished, the west side will hold 430,000 square feet of office space and 70,000 square feet of retail.

"It's the beginning of Bell Works phase two," McLeod said at the event. The developer didn't name any new tenants that day. McLeod said he expected a proposal for at least one more restaurant on the west side. Another 70,000 square feet of retail, plus a restaurant that could keep its own hours, gives the building a chance to stay busy after the office week ends. Until those tenants are announced, the schedule above stands.

The campus is also adding homes. This year will see the first of 164 townhouses completed on the east side of the 152-acre site, and a later phase will bring about 300 apartments. For now, the surest way to catch Bell Market and its music nights is a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday after 4 p.m.

If you're figuring out how Bell Works fits into your week, or how the west-side build-out may shape this part of Hoffman Estates, I'm happy to talk it through. Sharon Lynch has followed changes like this across the Northwest suburbs since 1993, and I'll keep watching for news on who moves into the west wing. Let's Connect.