A Trader Joe's sign on Chicago Avenue in Evanston. Photo: Thestraycat57 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Years of rumor and one failed deal are about to give way to heavy equipment. Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, Ald. Melissa Wynne (3rd Ward) and representatives of developer Terraco, Inc. were scheduled to break ground Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, on a Trader Joe’s at 1211 Chicago Ave. The developer was targeting an October opening.
The site is a former Blockbuster Video location that has already been demolished. Terraco, a Wilmette-based firm, arranged the deal with the grocery chain, and its president, Scott Gendell, has described the project as moving full speed ahead. The Daily Northwestern reported that Evanston shoppers who wanted a Trader Joe’s had been driving to Glenview, Chicago or Park Ridge. An earlier effort to bring one to town, in 2008, fell through.
Parking and the neighbors
Tisdahl announced in February 2012 that the chain was coming to Evanston. In May of that year the City Council voted to spend more than $2 million on additional land for parking, including a Northwestern-owned building at 1229 Chicago Ave. The new store would sit within about a quarter-mile of both Jewel-Osco and Whole Foods, giving the Chicago Avenue corridor three grocery options in close range. Terraco also reported strong interest in a vacant storefront it owns next door, and Wynne said Hewn, a bakery at 810 Dempster St., chose its location partly because of the coming store.
A corridor already under construction
The groundbreaking came in the middle of other work along Chicago Avenue. AMLI Residential’s 214-unit rental community at Chicago Avenue and Kedzie Street was nearing completion. A mixed-use office and retail redevelopment at Chicago Avenue and Main Street was also moving ahead, and the Chicago Transit Authority was rebuilding a retaining wall along the corridor and replacing three viaducts.
Wynne, whose ward includes the corridor, called the store an important step in the continuing improvement of Chicago Avenue. Tisdahl pointed to the sales activity, jobs and visitors a store like this would bring.
The chain’s arrival had been announced more than a year earlier, so the ceremony marked the point where a long-discussed plan turned into construction on a lot that had sat empty since the Blockbuster came down.
Local coverage of the ceremony came from the Daily Northwestern, Evanston Now and Evanston Patch.
Sources: Daily Northwestern, Evanston Patch.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
