Starbucks coming to Mundelein shopping center
Foundering financially only a few years ago, Mundelein's Hawley Lake Plaza is getting another business - the town's latest Starbucks coffee shop.
A free-standing Starbucks is planned for the shopping center, which is on the northwest corner of Hawley and Lake streets. The 2,200-square-foot store will be built just north of the free-standing Flowerama shop that's in the southeast corner of the shopping center.
A May 2022 opening is expected.
The business will be Mundelein's second dedicated Starbucks shop. The other is in the Mundelein Crossings shopping center at 1050 N. Route 83.
Starbucks counters also operate inside the Jewel supermarket at 1150 W. Maple Ave. and the Target store at 3100 W. Route 60.
The new shop will offer drive-through service, which required a special use permit from the village board. The board unanimously granted that permit Monday night.
The board also unanimously agreed to subdivide the existing shopping center plan, a bureaucratic necessity.
Hawley Lake Plaza had been virtually ignored by consumers for many years until its owner undertook a yearlong renovation in 2015. The center's main two buildings got new facades and the parking lot was repaved.
Mundelein officials agreed to cover up to half the project's estimated $1.5 million cost through a tax-sharing deal.
Most of the businesses in the center are restaurants: Smokin' BBQ on 45, Subway, Surf's Up and Taqueria Los Naranjos 2. Vegas Nails and Oak Trail Spirits also operate there.
The plaza has a few vacancies, including a large space that last was a Walgreens more than 20 years ago.
Mayor Steve Lentz hopes Starbucks' eventual arrival will lead to more business for the shops and restaurants in the plaza and increase the chances those vacant storefronts get filled.
"This is a big win for our village," he said.
Trustee Tim Wilson was similarly excited about the coffee giant's expansion in town.
"That plaza has been a challenge for years," Wilson said. "This puts it in a different light."