Daily Herald opinion: At last, a new era: Navigating a development odyssey took two decades and ‘a devil of a time’
On Tuesday, when we read Chris Placek’s story about the last development planned for the old Dominick’s site on Kirchoff Road in Rolling Meadows, something like nostalgia rolled over us. This isn’t just another coming development, welcome as it is. This truly marks the end of an era.
The proposal is for nearly 9,000 square feet of commercial space on the street level of the three- and four-story buildings, with 36 residences above them. The complex will take up the last roughly 1.1 acres of what has been dubbed “the Dominick’s property,” a former retail center on Kirchoff Road anchored by Dominick’s that once was the city’s most vibrant downtown shopping hub.
That all began to change 22 years ago, when the store closed, one of 12 “underperforming” grocery stores in Chicago and suburbs that Dominick’s shuttered that year. In Rolling Meadows, city officials were worried, and residents were rightfully sad and upset. Besides the excellent produce and bakery goods they were known for, a local grocery store is the essence of community. This is especially true in Rolling Meadows, where the store was tucked off the beaten path and where shoppers were more likely to encounter friends and neighbors than strangers.
In 2004, though, nobody envisioned the odyssey that would keep the site from being meaningfully redeveloped for the next 15 years. In all, the journey has covered six municipal administrations, several economic turndowns, community bickering and the continual dashing of hopes that the site could be given over to another grocery store (remember the excitement over Uncle Joe’s and Caputo’s?) or another big retail draw to replace the taxes lost when Dominick’s closed.
Difficulties arose immediately. Dominick’s refused to give up its lease on the vacant property, ostensibly because they knew the city was looking for another grocery store and didn’t want the competition. At least, that’s what they said. Moreover, it soon became clear that the loss of thousands of shoppers who used Dominick’s each week was hurting the smaller businesses in the retail center. The loss left a gaping hole through Rolling Meadows' downtown.
Dominick’s finally released its lease in 2013, but redevelopment on the 11 acres was still stalled: Market conditions and community concerns about various proposals kept a solution at bay. Despite getting some nibbles from residential developers, city leaders and residents still clung to the idea of a commercial project, despite being told by analysts that Kirchoff Road didn’t have enough traffic to support a big outlet of that type.
“Fritz Duda had a devil of at time,” former Rolling Meadows Mayor Tom Rooney told our editorial board. Duda was a principal with Clark Street Development, engaged by the city in 2011 as a redevelopment partner. They tried for years, unsuccessfully, to fill the acreage with commercial users. “The things (businesses) we wanted weren't looking at us,” Rooney said. “The (proposals) being presented to us, we didn’t want.”
The lesson here, Rooney says, is all about market forces and the inability of a municipality to force changes that the market doesn’t support. Still, he’s not blaming anybody and he’s right not to: All those administrations, all those residents who fought for more shops and restaurants, and the economic development people who tried desperately to return that bit of Kirchoff Road to a bustling, joyful place of commerce and co-mingling … everybody worked so hard. They all did their best, with the best of intentions.
In 2019, the city council voted to give 9.5 acres over to the Meadow Square townhouse development, with its 106 units. Then-council members acknowledged that the retail market had changed significantly since Dominick’s closed, and commercial development on that site was not likely. Many in town felt it was a crushing blow. Others felt that reality had settled in to stay.
People still talk about the fate of the old Dominick’s site. Whatever your personal point of view, the newer Rolling Meadows residents who live along Kirchoff Road (and those yet to come) are benefiting the city’s economic fortunes by shopping and dining locally, while the developments themselves have created jobs and expanded the city’s tax base. The retail planned for the newest development will bring residents out to shop.
Did it really have to take more than two decades to settle? Perhaps yes. It’s just something Rolling Meadows had to go through and come out the other side again. Hats off to the people who helped see the city through the experience.