Years After Dominick's Closures, Suburban Communities Struggle to Re-Occupy Empty Lots

Three years after 72 Dominick’s Finer Foods locations closed their doors in the Chicago area, a handful of those locations are still vacant.

Most of the empty retail spaces were scooped up quickly by grocery competitors like Jewel-Osco, Whole Foods Market and Mariano’s Fresh Market shortly after the Dominick’s locations closed, Crain’s Chicago Business reported early this year. However, 10 stores — which total 700,000 square feet of retail space — are still empty.

Now, leaders from more than 20 mostly suburban communities impacted by these losses will be meeting next Thursday, Nov. 10 to discuss what to do next to salvage their local economies despite the uninviting blocks of empty stores.

“Residents desire additional grocery store options in the community,” Gina Cunningham, Woodridge’s mayor, said in a release. “Since Dominick’s vacated the 63rd Street location, Woodridge has aggressively reached out to grocery stores to consider occupying the site.”

The Woodridge location hasn’t received one formal bid for occupancy since the Dominick’s closed in 2013.

“One Call, 10 Stores, a Million Customers” is an advocacy group that consists of 9 communities that banded together in 2014 to land new tenants to occupy those empty retail spaces. With the chunks of dark stores in their communities, the group claims, local economies suffer. Shops that bordered previous Dominick’s locations now get less traffic because there isn’t a big anchor tenant nearby to draw shoppers to their local businesses.

The advocacy group represents 10 stores in the suburban area, including in Barlett, Glendale Heights, Bensenville, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, North Naperville, Woodridge, Oswego, South Naperville and Romeoville, according to its website. It also provides a coverage map for all 10 locations.

Each location has a separate page on the site that details nearby anchor stores — in Woodridge that would be Target, McDonalds and Subway — the demographics of the surrounding community, how many cars pass through the area on an average day and who leases the retail spaces. Contact information for those brokers is also provided.

While Cunningham and other suburban leaders have been lobbying for other grocers to occupy the large sites, since, as “One Call’s” website states, “While demographics differ for each community, what does not is [the] over one million customers that are looking to purchase your products, visit your store and add to your bottom line,” Cunningham said her village is open to other options.

“The Village is open to alternative uses that maximize sales tax revenue, generate additional traffic for local shopping centers and enhance a key gateway to the community,” she said.

Local officials will be meeting in a public press conference from 1:30-2 p.m. Nov. 10 at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Naperville. The meeting point is located at 1847 Freedom Dr.

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Photo courtesy of "One Call, 10 Stores, a Million Customers'" website.