Home decor giant taking over long-vacant Lake in the Hills Dominick's site
Big box retail chain At Home will be taking over the vacant Dominick's building in Lake in the Hills, village officials said Thursday.
It will be the Plano, Texas-based home decor superstore's fifth suburban location. At Home has stores in Aurora, Elmhurst, Geneva and Schaumburg.
"This is a very big deal," said George Hahne, the village's economic development coordinator. "I've been working on this for a year."
Earlier this year, Phoenix-based U-Haul International purchased the The Centre at Lake in the Hills shopping center at Randall and Algonquin roads for $5.05 million in an online auction. Built in 1997 on 8.5 acres, it comprises 99,451 square feet of retail space in three buildings: the roughly 72,000-square-foot Dominick's building, adjacent in-line shops and an outlot strip building.
U-Haul plans to dedicate a portion of the site for self-storage and retail sale of U-Haul materials.
Demolition crews began tearing down the front of the Dominick's building Thursday. At Home is leasing the building from U-Haul and plans to add roughly 12,000 square feet to the building for its store, Hahne said.
"The lease (was) signed between At Home and U-Haul last week," he said. "They have all their permits (for) demolition and construction. They are going to expand off the front of the building, and then on the north side of the building right now exists a grass berm ... they are going to build on that."
The village board also has granted a variance to allow construction of a parapet wall at the entry of the building up to 50 feet tall as a design feature.
At Home's Schaumburg store houses roughly 50,000 home decor and furniture items, Hahne added.
Spokespersons for U-Haul and At Home could not immediately be reached for comment.
Since Dominick's closed in December 2013, the site has been eyed by many developers interested in dividing the building among several businesses. Three interested retailers backed out of deals to fill the former supermarket. Batavia-based discount grocer Aldi also had considered building a 21,255-square-foot prototype store within a portion of the Dominick's building.
GNC, H & R Block and Miracle-Ear Hearing Aid Center are the remaining in-line shop tenants within the 10,346-square-foot attached strip mall. That building has four vacant suites totaling 6,000 square feet facing Algonquin Road. A second building facing Randall Road comprises 16,720 square feet of retail space. Tenants include Einstein Brothers Bagels, Yumz Gourmet Yogurt and Jersey Mike's Subs. It has two vacant suites totaling 4,520 square feet.