Trader Joe’s grocery plans move to Evanston
BY KAREN BERKOWITZ kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com February 17, 2012 12:21PM
Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl announces the addition of Trader Joe's to the city on Friday infront of the grocery chain's new location on Chicago Avenue. I David Banks~for Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: March 24, 2012 8:13AM
Evanston officials have been trying to woo a Trader Joe’s grocery store for well over a decade so the announcement Friday of the store’s arrival, as Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl put it, “has us all jumping out of our skin.”
Trader Joe’s announced earlier in the day that it had signed a lease to locate on the site of a shuttered Blockbuster Video store near Chicago Avenue and Dempster Street. When it opens in early 2013, the California-based chain’s 14th Illinois store will be located at 1211 Chicago Ave. The existing building will be razed and replaced with a store of about 13,000 square feet, to be developed by Wilmette-based Terraco Inc., the new owner of the property.
In a statement, Trader Joe’s said the Evanston store will feature the chain’s trademark mix of “foods and beverages ranging from the everyday to the exotic.” The store also will sell beer and wine.
“As Evanstonians, we always knew that Evanston was exactly the place that Trader Joe’s wanted to be,” said Tisdahl, during a media event Friday afternoon at the site. “We just needed to find a place for them to open a store.”
The deal marks the culmination of nearly a year of closely-guarded talks between Trader Joe’s, city officials and Terraco staff.
The store will be located near a Whole Foods store at 1111 Chicago Ave., and across the street from a Jewel-Osco at 1128 Chicago Ave. Another Whole Foods is located just a few blocks to the north.
“This is now really going to be a grocery shoppers’ destination,” said Ald. Melissa Wynne, who represents the Third Ward where the store will be located.
Wynne played a key role in the negotiations.
“With our Whole Foods and our Jewel here, you will really not need to go any farther to buy anything you want to buy,” she added.
Neighbor Sheri Milton lives about a block away from the new store and couldn’t be more thrilled.
“We all in Evanston have been traveling long distances to go to Trader Joe’s, so to have it right here in our backyard” is perfect, said Milton, who currently travels to stores in Glenview and Chicago.
The city and Trader Joe’s have been flirting with a deal for nearly a decade. The chain first showed interest in occupying the former Border’s store at 1629 Orrington Ave., but then pulled out. Alderman Ann Rainey, 8th ward, and south side residents wanted a Trader Joe’s for a vacant Osco store at Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street, but the company wouldn’t commit.
Developer Robert King thought he’d landed a Trader Joe’s for space in a residential project at Oak and Emerson but that deal fell through when the project went into deep freeze because of the economy.
The mayor said Trader Joe’s is well-known for being a good employer and a place where people want to work. She plans to work with the firm to hire as many local residents as possible, and she believes the store will complement the existing shopping destinations along the corridor.
Scott Gendell, president of Terraco, said much work lies ahead to bring the project to fruition, but added, “Evanston is a fantastic place and a place that Trader Joe’s should have been a long time ago. We are glad we could help facilitate that.”
Evanston’s Chicago Avenue corridor has seen recent activity with the ground breaking of AMLI Residential, a new 214-unit luxury rental apartment community located on Chicago Ave. at Kedzie Street; and the planned mixed-use office and retail redevelopment at Chicago Ave. and Main Street by OMS Evanston LCC.
Staff writer Bob Seidenberg contributed to this story.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment