Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

This COULD be legal depending on your agreements with your "partner". There is a general principle of business law (normally applied to corporations but also to other kinds of businesses) that says that if you are in a business with others and control it, you can't "usurp" business opportunities for yourself that could be beneficial to the business. So if the partnership could take advantage of the second location and you haven't given your partner the option of participating, and if your partnership agreement (if any) isn't clear on who can do what, the partner could object and possibly force you to put the new location into the business. Then again many business agreements allow the "partners" to have their own businesses, but usually those are businesses that are either not the same/similar or are with other people and already exist. There are many other considerations so it is time to either put your agreements with your partner in writing if you don't have anything in writing yet, or talk to an attorney about how to approach this situation.

This could be a very complicated situation. I suggest that you meet with an attorney in person as more information is needed in order to provide an answer worth looking at.