No update on vacant Rolling Meadows Dominick's site

No news is bad news for Rolling Meadows as officials keep waiting for development at the long-vacant Dominick's property on Kirchoff Road.

Representatives from Clark Street Development, which now owns the property, updated the city council on the project's progress on Tuesday night but didn't have much to report.

"There are no great announcements tonight - I'll remove that expectation now," said Fritz Duda, principal with Clark Street Development.

Since an earlier plan for a Caputo's family grocery store on the site fell through in 2013, developers have had no contract discussions with any possible tenants, Duda said.

When Dominick's exited the Chicago market at the end of 2013, Duda said the market became saturated with empty grocery store anchors; 28 of those 72 spots are still vacant.

"People ask us about this all the time," Mayor Tom Rooney said. "We know you're working and we appreciate that, but this is really killing us all with the wait."

Developers said the group has gone through a long list of national tenants that could anchor the center and are now looking at smaller junior anchors that could fill the space with two to five different tenants.

"Unfortunately tenants want to know who else is on board, so until you have three or four of them, it's very difficult. We're working to get the ball rolling," said Adam Moschin of Clark Street Development.

Rolling Meadows City Council members expressed their disappointment with the lack of progress and also with how the site continues to look dilapidated along a main city street.

"If you can, do anything to make the place look nicer. The street sign on Kirchoff is rugged," Alderman Mike Cannon said. "It looks like a slum. It's pretty stark."

They asked the company for a little money to fix up the site.

"The condition it's in, when you drive by, it looks like garbage," Alderman Brad Judd said. "At least if it looked like a feasible operation, you might get someone to talk to you sooner."

Since Dominick's closed in 2008, the site has been a large vacant hole in the town and is the subject of many emails and phone calls to city officials.

"This is the number one thing on people's mind in Rolling Meadows," Rooney said.