Meijer eyeing vacant Dominick's in Prospect Heights
Only the second Meijer's store in the Northwest suburbs may soon open in Prospect Heights.
Instead of building a new store from the ground up -- like it did in Rolling Meadows -- the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer is negotiating to lease and rehab the vacant Dominick's store in Prospect Crossing Shopping Center off Rand Road and Thomas Street (Willow Road).
The Prospect Heights City Council agreed this week to reimburse the shopping center owner, CR Crossing, $1.75 million in sales tax revenues generated from the project over 10 years as an incentive to bring Meijer here.
"It is a very exciting potential for our municipality," Mayor Dolly Vole said. "We've gone many years with the property owner collecting rent and us receiving nothing."
The 87,000-square-foot Dominick's store closed eight years ago. Dominick's maintains a lease on the property that expires in roughly 18 months. The property owner is still negotiating with Dominick's to release the site from the contract, city officials said.
Until that happens, any jubilation over the Meijer deal is premature, Vole said.
"There is no guarantee," Vole said. "At this point, it's about 50 percent that they are coming."
It would be the biggest retail project in Prospect Heights for a long time.
The project would be expected to generate $30 million to $40 million in yearly sales tax revenue, of which the city's share would amount to roughly $175,000. The only other grocery store in town is a much smaller ALDI's.
A spokesman for Meijer would not confirm whether the retailer plans to take over the site in Prospect Heights.
Meijer Inc. operates 185 supercenters in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. The retailer says it invented the "one-stop shopping" concept, evolving over its 75-year history to sell fresh produce and meat, pharmacies, electronics, garden equipment and apparel.
Yet, in recent years, Meijer has significantly scaled back its expansion plans and postponed new store openings.
Hoffman Estates has been waiting for a planned Meijer Superstore for more than nine years.
That project, targeted for a site owned by Meijer in the Fountain Crossing shopping center along Barrington Road at Lakewood Boulevard, has been a victim of bad timing.
Meijer was embroiled in a lawsuit with the village of South Barrington over the Hoffman Estates project just months after it was announced in 2000. That lawsuit was later settled but other circumstances further delayed the project.
"Then because of 9/11 and the downturn that followed, Meijer reassessed how many new stores they were going to open per year," Hoffman Estates Village Manager Jim Norris said.
Norris isn't surprised or concerned that Meijer may now be considering moving into Prospect Heights.
"(It) does not diminish the market for a Meijer's in Hoffman Estates," Norris said. "We understand that it is a totally different investment, building from scratch versus taking over an existing building."
More recently, Meijer thought it might have the Hoffman Estates store ready by this year or 2010.
"With the now more recent downturn in the economy, that obviously delays things," Norris said. "They still have intention of building someday. Obviously, from the village's standpoint, the sooner the better."