Woodman's Food Market walls going up in Bloomingdale with eye toward opening next year

The Woodman's Food Market in Bloomingdale is beginning to take shape with concrete walls going up on the site of a former Macy's that was demolished in 2019.

Precast concrete walls are being set on the 19-acre site to enclose the new stand-alone grocery store near Schick Road and Gary Avenue in the Stratford Square Mall area. At 243,000 square feet, the new store's interior will encompass about 5½ acres.

"It's a very big deal," Director of Community & Economic Development Sean Gascoigne said. "Any grocery store that large is a big deal for us."

Much of the construction up until this point has been demolition and reworking the interior of Stratford Square Mall where Macy's had been an anchor. Workers then moved outside to complete exterior finishes, Gascoigne said.

The Macy's space at Stratford has been vacant since the store closed in March 2017 and is part of a trend of the downsizing of the mall, after JCPenney closed in 2014. Carson Pirie Scott closed in 2018, and Sears in 2019.

Once it's completed, the massive 24-hour Woodman's grocery store won't be attached to the mall. It will feature a 2,300-square-foot car wash and two gas stations - one unattended facility and a fully staffed station with a convenience store and lube center.

The store is expected to open its doors by September 2021.

A 244,171-square-foot Woodman's opened in Lakemoor last fall. Others are in Buffalo Grove, Carpentersville and North Aurora.