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| 71st/Jeffrey Dominick's by DNA Info's Quinn Ford |
Since October we've known that Dominick's parent company Safeway will be exiting the Chicago market by the end of the year. Many of those soon to be former Dominick's site throughout the area have been purchase d by Jewel, Mariano's, and even Whole Foods Market. This was the subject of a meeting that took place at the South Shore high school this past Saturday.
The subject is the Dominick's store at 71st/Jeffrey that is expected to close Decemeber 28, 2013. No word so far on the future of this location, however, there is a story on it over at DNA Info:
The South Shore Planning Coalition held a meeting Saturday to discuss ideas for the space that could be passed on to city lawmakers.Well there is already a Jewel over at 75th/Stony Island. Whole Foods Market has already started working on their future location at 1521 E. Hyde Park Blvd. expected to open in 2015. Who knows if Whole Foods would even consider coming further south than 63rd Street since by 2016 there will be a store in Englewood.
Most neighborhood residents said they wanted the location to remain a grocery store and suggested everything from Whole Foods to Trader Joe's to a neighborhood co-op. Others wanted to know what progress has been made towards filling the space.
Ibrahim Okoe, a representative from Ald. Leslie Hairston's office, said any deal is still a long way off.
Hairston, whose 5th Ward contains the Dominick's, learned of the closing through media reports. Hairston has formed a "task force" with Ald. Natashia Homes (7th) and Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) to work on getting the space filled, Okoe said.
Hairston has also contacted a number of wholesale food suppliers — like Mariano's, Food 4 Less, Trader Joe's and Ultra Foods — to see if any were interested in the location but nothing concrete has come yet from those calls.
With the Dominick's store set to close its doors on December 28, it appears that the location will be empty for some period of time.
It's interesting to continue the discussion that Worlee started a few years ago, even if this is a different discussion. He was talking about utilizing land that could be earning some tax revenue at least with some retail options. Now we're talking about what to do with a store that's soon to be shuttered with no timetable as to when another retailer will move in.
Judging by this photo seen on the FB event page from the meeting on Saturday there's enough people who live or shop at the store who are concerned.
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| Photo from FB |
This is going to be interesting to see what will happen. Right now, its an older store that would have cost too much to be remodeled and probably has an unfavorable lease with an unwillingly property owner as well as he current mix of businesses there doesn't scream out "come join me". The most probable scenario is a second tier store such as Fair Play, Strack & Van Til(Ultra) or Pete's Fresh Market(no relation to Pete's Produce) will come in and take the space. But, with South Shore not having a true grocery store and this store serves the Jackson Highlands that has a number of Univ of Chicago employees as residents it forces the city to step in and assist. The city could port TIF funds from communities like Englewood to support a Marioano's or another Whole Foods. Possibly Whole Foods could withdraw from Englewood and choose South Shore which would probably make shareholders and Wall Street a little bit happier as Wall Street isn't happy with the Englewood location. Lastly, nothing happens at that site, if the alderman from the 5,6,7,8,10 and 20th wards could come together and bring a Meijer's, Whole Foods, or Mariano's along with other wanted retail could come to 79th Stony Island which is ripe for redevelopment.
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