The Church Street properties Chanpen Ratana and Hassib Blan were pushed out of more than two years ago remain empty, but the Evanston restaurant owners have forged ahead in new locations.

Urged to sell their property to the city in order to make way for the still-delayed Sherman Plaza development, the two owners have had different experiences in their new locations. Blan, the owner of the Middle Eastern restaurant Olive Mountain, 610 Davis St., said business is still down “a little bit” from his previous location. But Ratana, who owns Thai Sookdee, said her new location at 1016 Church St. has “worked out well for us, period.”

“We are at this end of the downtown area and we have a lot of new customers from this side of town,” Ratana said. “We got a bigger place.”

Ratana said that the new building allows her to accommodate larger groups — up to 40 people — something she could not have done at her old location at 810 Church St. She said she was able to draw new customers without any new advertising.

But for Blan, the move to his current location left the restaurant with a smaller building in a less busy area of town. He said the old location at 814 Church St. was more profitable because more people walk around in that part of town.

“Church is more active than Davis,” he said. “The theaters were very near to us. Now most (people) don’t want to walk all the way to Olive Mountain.”

Joy Yee’s Noodle Kitchen also was urged to move to a new location, 519 Davis St., to make room for Sherman Plaza. The owner could not be reached for comment.

Despite some ill will, Blan and Ratana said they hope once Sherman Plaza is completed, it will attract more customers to the area.

“I just want to know what’s going on, and why it’s taking so long,” Ratana said. “It will bring a lot of business to the area.”

Construction of Sherman Plaza is slated to begin as early as this summer, said James Klutznick of developer Thomas J. Klutznick Co. He said the conclusion of negotiations with a fitness club to replace Lakeshore Athletic Club, which pulled out of the project early this year, is “imminent.”

“The negotiations I believe are becoming fruitful,” he said. “We’ve been in a round of negotiations with a particular prospect and hopefully we will very shortly have a conclusion.”

Responding to concerns about the delays by some residents, Klutznick said no one is “more anxious” than he is to get construction underway.

“Hopefully we’ll both be satisfied by the summer that (construction is) moving ahead,” he said.

But Blan said he wonders if the building will ever be constructed.

“We are just waiting to see the promises they made,” he said.