Pete's Fresh Market finally closes purchase of Near West Side site

After numerous delays, Ald. Bob Fioretti says grocery store owns property, will break ground soon

01/26/2012 7:14 PM

By Ben Meyerson
Editor

19 Comments - Add Your Comment

After numerous delays, Pete’s Fresh Market finally owns the property they’re planning to build a grocery store on at Madison Street and Western Avenue, Ald. Bob Fioretti said in an email Thursday evening.

Pete’s closed on the property Thursday, Fioretti said, finally putting it fully in the grocery store’s control.

The store’s progress has been repeatedly delayed. At a meeting in June last year, the store’s manager, Charlie Poulikis, said that if they began construction in 2011, they hoped to open their doors by mid-2012. However, with winter underway, it’s unclear how much construction could be done in the near future.

No groundbreaking date has been set yet.

At an unrelated meeting Wednesday evening, Fioretti called the process to this point “a disaster,” and said “everything that could go wrong did go wrong.”

In his email, Fioretti said the project will create approximately 250 construction jobs and 250 permanent retail jobs, with preference for the position going to residents of the current 2nd Ward.


19 Comments - Add Your Comment



By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/08/2012 0:12 AM

Here is a link to the TIF maps. http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/tif/west_side_tif_districtmap.html I am not sure I understand if there is a difference between the Near West TIF and the Central West TIF.


By claudeah from United Center
Posted: 02/07/2012 5:28 PM

I know east of Western is still part of the Near West TIF, but it may extend as far as Garfield Park. Our money went towards Skinner School and Rush, so I'm guessing it went to Mariano's as well.


By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/07/2012 9:21 AM

The Mariano's got money from the Near West TIF I thought, which does not go that far west. Does anyone know for sure? Personally I don't think TIF money should be used to fund this kind of development.


By Other side of tracks from Near West Side
Posted: 02/07/2012 8:58 AM

Boy WestLooper, aren't you something. That may be 9 mins if you drive, but if you are old and have to take a shopping cart of groceries on a crowded Madison bus, that ride can become an eternity, that is if you can even get on the bus. There IS and HAS BEEN a demand for a grocery store. Oh, and TIF dollars from those west of Ashland went to pay for that Mariano's. Why should my tax dollars pay for a type of store that is in an already saturated market. Such an elitest attitude.


By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/06/2012 11:21 PM

Shocker, companies want to build stores near customers! Maybe that's unfair, and the government (i.e. taxpayers) should subsidize a grocery store further west. But stop acting like it is some sort of conspiracy to screw the west of Ashland set. The new Target will be even closer than Dominick's.


By Steve
Posted: 02/06/2012 11:14 PM

You forgot the Target that is being built so make that 5.


By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/06/2012 11:13 PM

If there isn't demand for a grocery store sufficient to make it profitable in a given neighborhood, one will not be built, absent government subsidy. I'm glad Pete's is being built, but meeting demand for grocery stores is something that ought to be left to the market. The taxpayers don't owe anyone a grocery store -- the new Pete's is exactly 9 minutes on the 20 bus from the Dominick's at Halsted. That distance is actually about the same distance I travel to go to my favorite grocery.


By Other side of tracks from Near West Side
Posted: 02/06/2012 4:13 PM

Easy for you to say WestLooper. Opps. I forgot, you are one of the privlidged few who will soon have four, count them, four grocery stores with in 10 blocks of each other. Dominicks, Jewel, Walmart, and Marianos. We have a Walgreens with an "Expanded Foods Section". How would that go over as a solution in the West Loop?


By David from Near West Side
Posted: 02/05/2012 2:23 PM

It's not about being "owed" a grocery store. It's about conflicting stories on an important community issue.


By WestLooper from West Loop
Posted: 02/05/2012 1:29 PM

No one owes you a grocery store.


By David from Near West Side
Posted: 02/05/2012 1:24 PM

Petes Market was supposed to apply for permits last March and break ground in the summer. There was a facebook post last summer saying that Pete\'s was waiting to finish another store before statring. Now this article saying the sale of the property was complete and Petes has full control. What will the next article be???? Let me guess more excuses. How about stopping with the excuses and get it done. The Near West Side has gone long enough without a supermarket.


By karla from united center
Posted: 02/02/2012 1:09 PM

so if breaks ground in the spring, will it be open by Fall?? or escalated since this community has been without for years, not to mention starting about 4 years after it was supposed to.....???????/


By Sueann from Near west
Posted: 02/01/2012 1:46 PM

From what I heard, there was also a slim peice of land that a near west owner was reluctant to sell because the lot wasn\'t going to their grocery store of choice. (Think Chicago politics at its finest when it comes to the near west side).


By George from Near West Side
Posted: 01/30/2012 11:29 AM

Note to Larry: Pete's have problems when open other locations (95th and Pulaski). But this time, its wasn't about Pete's being greedy. That vacant lot on Western and Madison had sections owned by different people including the alley. Then they was the task to find these folks. And don't about ownership being change to someone else without the city, cook county, and state knowing about it.


By claudeah from united center
Posted: 01/30/2012 8:57 AM

Larry---The last thread in the deal was buying an alley (which really didn't look like an alley) from the city. And Sam--Mariano's is in Burnett's ward. He managed to secure, I believe $7m in TIF funds for them, while it took forever for Pete's to buy an alley from the city.


By mike from upper westside
Posted: 01/28/2012 5:16 PM

I don't know what to believe... If I'm not mistaken, I read an article written in the journal this past spring saying the deal was completed and ground breaking was suppose to start on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm no longer holding my breath.


By Larry from West Loop
Posted: 01/28/2012 12:56 PM

I mean Pete, sorry.


By Larry from West Loop
Posted: 01/28/2012 8:40 AM

Sam, did it ever occur to you that maybe Sam and the owners were a little too greedy and demanding and couldn't reach a deal with the city? Why is it always the city's fault?


By Sam from New West Side
Posted: 01/27/2012 3:57 PM

Its just plain strange that Pete's Fresh Market had a bunch of problems, but not these stores in the 2nd Ward: Costco, Target, Walmart Market, Maranio's, and Trader Joe's. What makes matters worst is that Pete's Fresh Market should had been built in 2009.