Fitness center won't open in vacant Dominick's store in Carol Stream
A gym with around-the-clock access has dropped plans to open in an empty Dominick's store that used to anchor a Carol Stream shopping center.
California-based 24 Hour Fitness would have occupied more than half of the vacant, 72,000-square-foot building in Geneva Crossing at the northwest corner of Geneva Road and Main Street.
The Tabani Group, the center's owner, told village officials in early spring that the real estate firm was close to signing a lease with the prospective tenant. But the deal never materialized, leaving a void in the mall's most prominent spot.
Village planners recently met with a Tabani representative and learned 24 Hour Fitness is not moving forward with the project. The chain was looking to expand into the Midwest and apparently took a step back, village officials say.
The building has sat vacant since Dominick's parent company, Safeway, shuttered stores across the region in 2013. But Safeway still continued to pay rent, seemingly leaving property owners with little incentive to attract new tenants.
Safeway merged in 2015 with Albertsons, the parent company of the Jewel-Osco grocery chain. Albertsons' lease on the Dominick's space is slated to expire in October 2017, said Tom Farace, the village's planning and economic development manager.
Under the terms of the agreement, Albertsons had until this October to request a lease extension, but made no such proposal, Farace said.
Suburban mayors last month called on Albertsons to stop extending leases on former Dominick's stores. The company representatives were invited to meet with the leaders at the gathering in Naperville, but they declined and sent a letter saying that marketing continued on 15 Dominick's spaces that remain vacant.
"When you're leasing a space that doesn't have a tenant and you're renewing that lease for five years purposely so you can control whatever goes in there, that's where we're having an issue," Bartlett Village President Kevin Wallace said at the time.
In Carol Stream, the move to let the lease expire next fall could open the door for another competitor to fill the vacancy at Geneva Crossing. Just across the village's border in Wheaton is a Jewel-Osco store at Geneva Road and Main Street.
The Tabani Group has had talks with grocers and retailers about leasing all or part of the Dominick's space. Developers of a children's indoor playground and a movie theater that also would serve food have expressed interest in the site.
Just north of Geneva Crossing, the family that owns a vacant property along the west side of Schmale Road has applied for zoning approvals for the construction of two retail buildings. The development calls for a total of five buildings.
Two tenants - a Sherwin-Williams paint store and a day care center - have been announced so far.