Buffalo Grove to meet with Jewel about vacant Dominick's site
Buffalo Grove representatives will meet within the next week with the president of Jewel-Osco regarding the grocery chain's plans for the former Dominick's store at Lake-Cook and Arlington Heights roads.
Community Development Director Christopher Stilling revealed the planned meeting at an open house Wednesday to discuss the Economic Development Strategic Plan awaiting village board approval later this month.
Stilling said the meeting next week will focus on plans for its property in the Chase Plaza shopping center.
"They actually reached out to us proactively, wanting to give us an update on what their plans are for moving forward," he said.
"I don't envision them to open up a new grocery store themselves. But we wanted to talk to them about (possible) options," Stilling added. "It has been vacant for a couple of years now and it is having an impact on the tenants in the center, and it's our understanding that they have been hesitant to sell or lease to other grocery stores that might be interested."
The Dominick's space has been vacant for two years. At one point, it was rumored that Butera Finer Foods had purchased the property and planned to open a Piggly Wiggly. That never came to fruition, however.
Stilling said Jewel-Osco, whose parent company, Albertson's, acquired the assets of Dominick's parent company, Safeway, in January has been telling potential developers of the site they could not put a grocery or drugstore on the property.
"Most developers who are going to make a long-term investment don't want to buy properties with certain encumbrances like tenant encumbrances," Stilling said.
The open house Wednesday gave the public a chance to weigh in on the proposed economic plan, which was developed over the summer with input of the business community and others. Details of the plan can be found at www.vbg.org/898/Economic-Development-Strategic-Plan.
Stilling said one of the issues facing the village as it seeks to attract and retain businesses is housing - with one of the big challenges being that much of the workforce in the village comes from out of town.
Jon Migdow, a merchant who has lived in town for about 25 years, said the village is primarily a bedroom community.
"I can tell you people don't necessarily conduct their retail business here. They're here to raise their children," he said. "People get in their cars and they will drive to adjacent communities. There are so many shopping centers and places to do business now that I don't know that the focus to redo the village that way should really be what you should be thinking about."