Starbucks opening in Long Grove space previously occupied by Peet's, Caribou

Starbucks will open in Long Grove's busy Route 83 corridor in a vacant mall space previously occupied by two other coffee shops.

Village President Bill Jacob said he expects the Starbucks pegged for Sunset Grove will be a boost for the plaza overall. He said the village welcomes Starbucks' arrival.

"There always has been this misnomer that Long Grove didn't want a Starbucks," Jacob said.

Starbucks will fill a space at Sunset Grove closest to Route 83 that's been vacant since September 2015. Peet's Coffee and Tea closed its Long Grove, Arlington Heights and Wheaton stores in what the company said at the time was a desire to focus on its top-performing locations in the Chicago area.

Peet's replaced Caribou Coffee, which was open for about a year, in 2013. Long Grove was part of Peet's conversion of 88 Caribou shops in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and eastern Wisconsin.

Vernon Hills-based Pinnacle Capital Group developed the 6-year-old, $30 million retail plaza anchored by Sunset Foods. Pinnacle director Daniel Levin said the departures of Caribou and Peet's had to do with corporate decisions and not poor performance in Long Grove.

Levin said Starbucks is expected to open in the fall. He said there will be plenty of parking and an easy drive-through flow for the Starbucks.

"It's going to be a really great thing," he said. "And the rest of the tenants are excited about it as well."

Starbucks will be in a section of Route 83 in Long Grove that received an average 45,400 daily vehicles trips just south of Aptakisic Road, according to the most recently available Illinois Department of Transportation statistics. The daily trips to the north of Aptakisic were 42,100.

"When we originally developed this center, those traffic counts at 83 and Aptakisic really helped sell it to potential tenants," Levin said.