Meijer coming to Niles; Hopes dim for Prospect Heights store

As workers continue to gut the interior of a defunct Value City Department Store in Niles making way for an urban-style Meijer grocery store, hopes are dimming for a similar project materializing in Prospect Heights.

In May, Meijer was negotiating to lease and rehab the vacant Dominick's store in Prospect Crossing Shopping Center off Rand Road and Thomas Street, also known as Willow Road.

It would have been only the second Meijer store in the Northwest suburbs - the other one being in Rolling Meadows.

The Prospect Heights City Council agreed to provide a $1.75 million sales tax incentive over 10 years to shopping center owner, CR Crossing, to bring Meijer there. The project was expected to generate $30 million to $40 million in yearly sales, of which the city's share through sales tax would amount to roughly $175,000 a year after the incentive was paid. Now, it seems the project is dead.

"We've never received anything solid from the owners of that shopping center," Prospect Heights Mayor Dolly Vole said. "My understanding from CR Crossing is that Dominick's is not willing to give up (its) lease."

The 87,000-square-foot Dominick's store closed eight years ago. Dominick's lease on the property expires in roughly 15 months. A company spokeswoman did not return a call requesting comment.

Similarly, there has been no progress on a proposed Meijer Superstore targeted for a site owned by Meijer in the Fountain Crossing shopping center along Barrington Road at Lakewood Boulevard in Hoffman Estates.

That project has been stalled for more than nine years. Meijer spokesman Frank Guglielmi would not comment on the status of negotiations for any new store locations.

"We are constantly evaluating sites and opportunities for stores throughout the Midwest footprint," he said.

The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer presently operates 189 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio.

Meijer's Niles store, located in the Golf Glen Shopping Center off Golf Road and Western, will be the first of its kind focusing on fresh grocery and pharmacy products, breaking with the company's traditional supercenter concept. Its footprint is 100,000 square feet - half the size of a typical Meijer superstore, Guglielmi said

"It gives us an opportunity to get into more densely populated urban areas," he said. "This specific concept is a test. Eventually, the goal is to build more of these."

The Niles Meijer is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2010.