Lincolnshire may get 1st grocery store
The architectural plans for a grocery store proposed for one of Lincolnshire's busiest intersections were publicly unveiled Tuesday night.
The Fresh Market store, which could be built on the northeast corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Half Day Road, would feature a stone, brick and siding facade inspired by Lincolnshire's village hall and municipal buildings in Mundelein and other Lake County towns, architect Mark Ethun said during an architectural review board meeting.
Like those buildings, the roughly 23,000-square-foot store would have sloped rooflines, large windows and other quasi-residential elements, Ethun said.
“We wanted to do something a little different,” Ethun told the architectural board, which advises the village board.
The grocery store would be Lincolnshire's first. A Wild Oats grocery store once was proposed for the property, but the deal dissolved after the company was purchased by Whole Foods, said Stephen McNellis, director of community development.
“The No. 1 thing this village has asked for is a grocery store,” McNellis said.
The seven-acre site, which is green space now, wraps around a Marathon gas station near the corner.
The Fresh Market, which is headquartered in North Carolina, wants to break ground in October and open by the end of May 2013, according to a recent village memo.
A separate building that would house a restaurant has been proposed, too.
To make the site more hospitable, the village board voted last week to hire a Wauconda construction firm to build a road through the property, create a parking lot and make other improvements.
The work will cost the village $2.3 million. The money will come from a special property-tax fund for the area, McNellis said.
No work except some preparatory site grading will be authorized until The Fresh Market gets a building permit, officials have said.