Heinen's Fine Foods eager to break ground on its 2nd Chicago-area store in Glenview

2013-08-28 PCS Heinen's Glenview 1.jpg

Heinen's Fine Foods expects to break ground within weeks for its second Chicago-area store, in the Village of Glenview, about 22 miles from its Barrington store that opened last August. Designed by Process Creative Studios in Cleveland, the store will be slightly bigger than Barrington, with rooftop employee parking and a cafe and seating area for customers.

(Process Creative Studios)

WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A year after Heinen's Fine Foods launched its first out-of-state grocery in Barrington, Ill., it is readying the shovels to break ground on a second Chicago-area store in Glenview within weeks.

If everything goes smoothly and construction of the foundation starts next month, Heinen's 19th store -- representing an estimated $10 million to $12 million investment -- could open in Downtown Glenview as early as April 1, 2014.

"All the stuff that goes with putting a building on a piece of land has been approved," including architecture, landscaping, lighting, signs and other details, said Lynne Stiefel, communications director for the Village of Glenview.

"The Planning Commission signed off on it, the Village Board signed off on it, and all that's left is the Appearance Commission sign-off," which is expected to take place on Sept. 25.

Tom Heinen, third-generation co-president of Heinen's, is optimistic about opening on April 1 if they can get the parking lot paved before the asphalt plants close for the winter in November. If not, the opening date could be pushed to May.

"We're hoping to have people on site by the (Sept.) 16th, and start digging dirt by the 23rd," said Bill Wells, Heinen's director of store planning. He said Glenview village officials had so many requirements and architectural and landscaping details they wanted added that the store may end up being one of Heinen's best-looking when it's finished.

Glenview, about 20 minutes northwest of Chicago and about 40 minutes from the other Heinen's store, has demographics similar to Barrington's. Its 44,692 residents have a median family income of $125,138 and a median home value of $545,000, according to the village website.

At 43,915 square feet, the Glenview store will be slightly larger than its 38,000-square-foot Barrington sister. That's because while Heinen's remodeled a former Staples store there, it will build from the ground up on a vacant lot in Glenview.

But customers will probably not notice much of a difference, because the second floor will include offices and a common area rather than additional retail selling space, Wells said. The Glenview store will have a small cafe and seating area that Barrington didn't have room for.

Plans call for a two-story building on a 3-acre site at Waukegan and Glenview Roads, with 138 customer parking spaces and 80 employee parking spaces and offices on the roof.

Tom Heinen said he expects to hire 90 to 120 full- and part-time employees, and has invited Cleveland-area Heinen's workers interested in relocating to notify him or his brother, Jeff Heinen. Fifteen people ended up moving to jobs at the Barrington store that opened in August 2012.

Neither the Glenview store nor the Barrington store offer the drive-up, bag-packing service that Heinen's offers at its 17 Greater Cleveland stores. "Parcel pickup just chews up parking," he said. Instead, Chicago-area Heinen's customers take their shopping carts out into the parking lots, load their own cars, and leave the carts in corrals.

The Glenview Heinen's will rise where a smaller Dominick's Finer Foods once stood, before its parent company Safeway Inc. closed it to consolidate business at another nearby store. The Village of Glenview bought the property in 2007 and spent years searching for a new grocery tenant.

After considering several supermarkets, "it was determined that Heinen's Fine Foods represented the type of high-quality, full-service grocer that was envisioned during the Downtown revitalization planning process of 2006-2007," village documents said.

Heinen's signed a 10-year lease for the site on Dec. 11. The agreement calls for Heinen's to occupy the building by July 2014 and take over the deed in 2023.

After Safeway finally left the property on Dec. 31, 2012, the village razed the building, prepared the site for new construction, and offered Heinen's the top spot on a new multi-tenant sign for the shopping center.

Village officials say Heinen's was not offered and did not seek any special incentives from the local government to move in.

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