Binny’s, other businesses opening in north Arlington Hts.
Binny’s Beverage Depot will open a 22,000-square-foot store in The Annex of Arlington in north Arlington Heights, giving a major boost to a shopping center with a high vacancy rate.
The store and a variety of other businesses will open this fall in the center at 155 N. Rand Road, at Rand and Arlington Heights roads north of Palatine Road, John Melaniphy, the village’s business and development coordinator, announced Friday.
An appliance and electronics store, Hhgregg, will also open, as will three restaurants — Smashburger, Caribou Coffee and Jersey Mike’s. They will share the building at The Annex that once housed Lone Star Steakhouse.
Trader Joe’s and Barnes and Noble currently have stores in the center, and two more smaller stores will be announced soon, said Melaniphy.
The shopping center was 60 percent vacant before the new round of leasing, he said.
When word of Binny’s intentions leaked in the spring, owners of current liquor stores complained, saying the village should limit the number of liquor licenses. A large Binny’s could put up to half of the village’s 30 liquor stores out of business, said Jerry Rosen, executive director of the Beverage Retailers Alliance of Illinois.
Melaniphy said he is concerned about the financial health of the existing stores, but under a free market system, he pursues businesses like Binny’s that he learns that they are interested in expanding to new locations.
“Certainly we try to target businesses that we think will enhance our overall quality of life and retail base as well as sales tax revenue,” he said.
Binny’s is an upscale business that will complement Trader Joe’s, even though that store also sells wine, said Melaniphy.
“Binny’s will bring additional consumers of wine to the shopping center and traffic to the restaurants,” he said.