Lease negotiations push back Food 4 Less opening until 2010
Posted on 2009-10-22 09:16:24 CDT
Food 4 Less is in the final stages of negotiations to move into an empty former Dominick's store in Chicago Heights.
The new grocery store will open in the 81,000-square-foot store at the northeast corner of Lincoln Highway and Western Avenue by the end of 2010, according to store real estate manager Mamie Yee.
The store had been expected to open sometime this year, but Food 4 Less was delayed in its lease negotiations with Dominick's, Yee said.
Dominick's, which closed its store in Chicago Heights about 10 years ago.
Yee told the Chicago Heights City Council this week Food 4 Less will lease the space from Dominick's.
Negotiations "aren't over because there are so many parties involved," Yee said. "We will get it done but there are so many little nits and nats."
Once the deal is finalized, Food 4 Less will spend about five months renovating the long-empty store.
"It's huge, especially in this economy, to have a retailer willing to invest money in a community," city attorney TJ Somer said. "And maybe this is the trigger for that entire Lincoln Highway-Western Avenue corridor to begin redevelopment."
The store will create 100 to 130 new jobs, and the company will hold a job fair a few months before the store opens, city officials said. Los Angeles-based Food 4 Less, owned by Kroger Co., recently opened a grocery store in Dolton - its 15th in the Chicago area.
"We're one of the few retailers with an expansion plan," Yee said.
The store, which will have a deli, a bakery and a full liquor department, will also have a gas station in its parking lot. It will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to midnight.
Ald. Joseph Faso (4th) said the grocery store can't open soon enough.
"We like jobs for our people and the sales tax you will create in Chicago Heights," Faso said. "And the lights will go on."
Yee agreed.
"It's been due way too long," she said
October 22, 2009
BY CASEY TONER
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