Wheaton may get downtown grocery store ... at Hubble School site?

Wheaton's best chance for a downtown grocery store might be the former Hubble Middle School site - not the shuttered Jewel Food Store nearby.

Members of a steering committee working with real estate consultants to determine the best use for the old Hubble property are reviewing four options for the 22-acre parcel at Naperville and Roosevelt roads.

One option calls for a mixed-use development with a specialty grocery store - even though a former Jewel building is for sale immediately to the north along Willow Avenue.

That doesn't surprise Councilman John Prendiville, who says it's "highly unlikely" the boarded-up structure will be a grocery store again.

For starters, Jewel-Osco has a $4 million asking price for the 19,500-square-foot building. Officials say they doubt the grocers who have expressed interest could afford that sum.

Even if they could, Prendiville said: "It is extremely unlikely that Jewel would sell to a competitor. And Jewel has expressed no interest at all in redeveloping that property as a grocery store."

Meanwhile, Prendiville and other members of the Hubble steering committee have learned the former school property is attractive to grocers because the intersection of Naperville and Roosevelt roads averages about 50,000 vehicles a day.

"They are not interested at all in the old Jewel site," said Councilman Liz Corry, who chairs the Hubble panel. "But they are interested in the Roosevelt Road site."

Even wholesale giant Costco has expressed an interest in redeveloping the Hubble property. One of the four development options for the property shows a 130,000-square-foot Costco store with two small retail buildings.

While a Costco would create significant sales revenue for the city, Corry said she doesn't believe it would be the right fit for the location. Officials have said they were looking for something other than a "big box" store to fill the site.

Still, Corry said, Wheaton officials need to "keep an open mind," especially in the wake of the sales tax dollars the city has lost. "If the windfall in sales tax is high enough, you might have to consider something like that," she said.

While there are questions about the site having big box retail, there's also hesitation about it only having condominiums and townhouses.

"I personally don't think there is a great market demand for that right now," Prendiville said.

But a mixture of uses could address some surprising market needs. For example, consultants have determined there is sufficient population in the area to support a 12- to 14-screen movie theater. The only theater showing films within three miles of the Hubble site is the Glen Art Theatre in Glen Ellyn.

Other possible uses for the property include a fitness center and an extended stay hotel.

While a redevelopment plan is expected to be completed by November or December, officials stress it will be at least two years before the property is redeveloped.

"Who knows when commercial real estate is going to come back," said Corry, adding it's up to Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 to decide when it wants to sell the land.

In the meantime, Prendiville said the challenge for the consultants and steering committee members will be to draft a redevelopment plan that is desirable and economically viable.

"Everything is market sensitive," he said. "We may want X, but the market may only be able to provide Y. So that's going to be a reality check for us as we move forward."