Fitness center signs lease for half of Dominick's space in Carol Stream
A fitness center chain that initially dropped plans to move into a former Carol Stream Dominick's store has reversed course and signed a lease to open in the long-vacant space.
California-based 24 Hour Fitness will occupy about half the empty, 72,000-square-foot space in the Geneva Crossing shopping center at the northwest corner of Geneva Road and Main Street.
The new anchor tenant will have round-the-clock access for club patrons.
It's not yet clear when the gym will open, but the chain would have to first make interior renovations to convert the former grocery store, said Tom Farace, the village's planning and economic development manager.
A message left with the company's senior director of real estate was not immediately returned Monday.
The Tabani Group, a real estate firm based in Dallas, bought the shopping center northwest of Geneva Road and Main Street more than three years ago. The firm's representatives told village officials in early spring 2016 that they were close to signing a lease with 24 Hour Fitness, but the deal failed to materialize, leaving a void in the mall's most prominent spot.
At the time, 24 Hour Fitness had been planning an expansion in Illinois but apparently held off, Farace said.
Then last spring, the Tabani Group subdivided the shopping center property. The firm still owns roughly half the site but sold the parcel containing the former Dominick's and the store parking lot to another entity based in New Jersey, Farace said.
Property tax bills on the nearly 6-acre site were addressed last year to Geneva Crossing Carol Stream IL LLC, according to DuPage County records. The manager listed on the LLC is Satyakumar Bhavanasi.
The anchor space in the Carol Stream shopping center has sat vacant since Dominick's parent company, Safeway, shuttered stores across the region in 2013.
Safeway merged in 2015 with Albertsons, the parent company of the Jewel-Osco grocery chain.