Wait is almost over for downtown Mount Prospect grocer

A question constantly on the lips of many Mount Prospect residents is about to be answered.

“Everybody in town is always asking me about when Caputo's is going to open,” Mayor Paul Hoefert said.

Mount Prospect resident Nick Papanicholas Jr., president of the Wingspan Development Group, has the answer.

Angelo Caputo's Fresh Market is set to open this February on the ground floor of the 192-unit, six-story luxury apartment building at 207 S. Maple St.

Papanicholas, who is at the helm of Nicholas & Associates of which Wingspan is an affiliate, Hoefert, Mount Prospect Trustee Augie Filippone and Village Manager Michael Cassady last week walked through the site.

Much of the store's furniture already was on the floor and hanging from the ceiling and walls, including empty cases with racks ready to be filled with food, overhead lights and attachments on the walls.

Caputo's is an established brand. The first fresh market opened in Addison in 1958, where its produce and Italian bakery products quickly gained favor. Since then, Caputo's has expanded to Hanover Park, Bloomingdale, Naperville, South Elgin, Carol Stream and Orland Park.

Filippone said the Mount Prospect location will save him a trip to Addison for his lupini beans, homemade Italian sausage and tomato bread.

Caputo's arrival in downtown Mount Prospect was announced in 2020. Yet, as the Maple Street Loft units filled up, beginning with preleasing in 2021, the grocer's opening kept getting delayed partly due to global supply-chain issues.

“In an ideal world, we would have been done months ago,” Papanicholas said. “Supply-chain issues with the refrigeration, with the HVAC equipment, the racks, the switch gear for the electrical, pretty much major components (had) definitely a long lead time and were costly. The cost jumped on this thing substantially. But we powered through and we're going to get to an opening.”

Local pride played a huge role in pushing the project to the finish line.

“If you can't get excited to build in your hometown, then you'd better roll it up,” he said.

The wait for Caputo's was brief, though, compared with the time spanning the departure of Mount Prospect's last downtown grocer and the opening of the new one.

Downtown grocers once included Jewel and National Tea. But those were gone, Hoefert said, by the time he moved to Mount Prospect 40 years ago.

Papanicholas remembered food being available at the Doretti Pharmacy in the old Central Plaza mall, but that was more of a convenience store.

The new store will serve residents of the Maple Street Lofts, especially those with quick shopping needs — all they have to do is take an elevator down. But it also will serve the residents of downtown Mount Prospect's burgeoning luxury apartment market, including Wingspan's own 20 West development just up the road on Northwest Highway.

The Mount Prospect location will offer fresh produce, homemade sausage, meats and imported deli items. It also will have a coffee bar and a prepared foods bar with all the food prepared in-house. They are home-cooked meals with no artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives.

The grocery will have dedicated underground parking. The store will be relatively small compared to other area grocers — at about 15,000 square feet it will be more of a neighborhood market.

“Are you going to come and do your $350 spend here? Probably not. You're going to go to Costco for that or you're going to go to Mariano's. But for smaller families, whether they're empty nesters, whether they're singles, you really don't need to have shelves and shelves of food in your home or your apartment,” Papanicholas said. “People will come here more frequently. So maybe instead of doing your grocery shopping once a week, maybe you come three times a week and spend $60 each time versus the one $300 purchase.”

Cassady foresees the store as a trendsetter in the area.

“This is more of an urban design that I think can be repeated throughout the suburbs,” he said.