The Whole Foods Market building in downtown Evanston. Photo: Eric Fredericks from Rancho Cordova, CA, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Evanston’s two empty Dominick’s supermarkets are getting new tenants. Valli Produce held a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, July 22, at Evanston Plaza, the shopping center at Dempster Street and Dodge Avenue. A week later, on July 29, the city’s third Whole Foods Market opens at 2748 Green Bay Road.
Dominick’s closed both Evanston stores at the end of 2013, and the buildings sat dark for more than a year and a half.
Valli on Dempster
Valli Produce is a family-owned chain based in Arlington Heights with about six stores in the Chicago area. It stocks a full grocery line with a strong emphasis on produce and on imported and ethnic foods. The company bought Evanston Plaza in the fall of 2014 and spent the following months renovating the former Dominick’s space, which is about 70,000 square feet. In early 2015 it asked the city for up to $2 million in assistance with the shopping center’s renovation.
According to the Daily Northwestern, Valli’s president, Carmine Presta, cited Evanston’s cultural diversity as part of the appeal, and more than 85 percent of the store’s hires came from Evanston. Ald. Peter Braithwaite of the 2nd Ward told the paper that the store would help fill a plaza that had been more than half empty.
Whole Foods on Green Bay Road
The Green Bay Road store is Whole Foods’ third in Evanston, after its locations at 1640 and 1111 Chicago Ave. The company reworked the old Dominick’s interior with new fixtures, energy-efficient LED lighting and reclaimed wood. The store includes a pub pouring local beer, a Cuban-inspired taqueria and bacon cured in-house. Whole Foods said it recruited staff through the Youth Job Center and the National Able Network.
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Ald. Jane Grover of the 7th Ward attended the grand opening. Grover, whose ward includes the site, described the old Dominick’s as a community gathering place and said the new store could become one too.
Timing with the bag ordinance
Both stores arrived just ahead of Evanston’s ordinance limiting plastic bag distribution by large retailers, which took effect the Saturday after the Daily Northwestern’s July 30 report, and the paper said both were to comply with it.
Braithwaite said the stores would add jobs and sales tax revenue, and called the Dominick’s closings discouraging for many residents.
Reporting draws on the Daily Northwestern’s July 30, 2015, coverage.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
