Walgreens To Close Glencoe Location When New Winnetka Store Opens

GLENCOE, IL — The opening of a Walgreens on Green Bay Road in Winnetka and the corresponding closure of another store a few blocks away will lead to Glencoe losing a substantial amount of revenue. The Walgreens located at 63 Green Bay Rd. in the Hubbard Woods Shopping Center, right on the edge of the Glencoe-Winnetka border, is the second largest retail space in town and a significant source of sales tax revenue for the village's budget, according to Village Manager Phil Kiraly.

Village staff has been working with the owners of the shopping center to figure out what to do with the site when Walgreens departs, Kiraly said at a May 17 Village Board meeting.

"Obviously, from all of our perspectives this isn't good news, but we are working proactively with the owners of the shopping center to discuss their plans to market and consider other uses for the property," said Kiraly.

Walgreens is moving with three years remaining on its lease, according to village staff. Kiraly said the landowners were working with the company to find a suitable sublease for the 12,000-square-foot store, a "difficult space to refill," as he described it.

"They don't want a dark space any more than we do," Kiraly said. He said village staff would being doing everything possible to work with the shopping center's owners during the search for the next tenant.

Kiraly said he did not know the exact amount of revenue that the retailers relocation would wind up costing the village.

"It's not an insubstantial hit. It's not something we're happy about," the village manager said.

The drugstore will automatically transfer all prescriptions to the new location when it opens in June, a spokesperson told Pioneer Press, and all employees at the Glencoe store will be hired on in Winnetka.