The former Dominick’s store in southeast Naperville will probably be a mere memory when its successor is ready to open to shoppers sometime next year – but no one knows for sure when that will happen.
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Proposed redevelopment plans from Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc. call for razing the vacant building that once housed a Dominick’s supermarket in the Fox Run Square shopping center at 75th Street and Naper Boulevard and replacing the structure with a new Mariano’s food store. The Dominick’s site was one of three in Naperville that closed at the end of 2013 when the chain pulled out of the Chicago market.
According to Paul Felstrup, a field project manager in the Naperville Transportation, Engineering and Development Department, city staff has done a plan review for the Mariano’s build-out and they’re going through engineering review now.
“The intention is to take the old Dominick’s out, down to the ground,” Felstrup said earlier this month.
City Councilwoman Patty Gustin, who chaired the advisory Planning & Zoning Commission when it unanimously supported the Mariano’s concept in January, said the new store will bring assorted improvements over the previous use.
“They’re going to be putting in a brand-new building which has an enclosed docking station,” Gustin said Tuesday, noting that the noise of delivery trucks will be far less intrusive for adjacent neighbors in the Fox Meadows subdivision.
In addition to entirely new water, fire and electrical systems, the new store is planned to include an outdoor seating area with a grilling station, for service of freshly prepared food.
“That’s going to be an awesome thing for the residents,” Gustin said of the new neighborhood dining option. “I think that’s really going to be a big plus. (Mariano’s) will be a big plus for the rest of that strip mall too, because it will be another anchor.”
Mariano’s has 30 stores in Chicago and the metropolitan region, including locations that have opened in former Dominick’s locations on Route 59 just south of Plainfield and at New York Street and Eola Road on Aurora’s eastern edge. Roundy’s has made no announcement of plans to repurpose the other empty Dominick’s spaces in Naperville, which are southeast of Route 59 and 95th Street and on the northwest corner of Ogden Avenue, North Aurora Road and Raymond Drive.
Gustin expects that another food store chain now making plans in Naperville will have a similarly rejuvenating effect just up the road from that former Dominick’s, though. The Fresh Thyme market slated to open in the Cress Creek Square center at Ogden and Royal St. George Drive will add vitality to that retail hub as well, she said.
“It’s one of those additions that is taking the city in the right direction, which is to be supportive of business,” she said.
The timing of the Mariano’s project remains uncertain, however. Rory Fancler, a development operations manager in the TED offices, noted that while the City Council in April approved zoning changes and variances clearing the way for the renovation, there are assorted other preliminary steps needed before the wrecking ball can fly.
“The architectural plans were recently submitted to the city (first submittal) and are currently under review,” Fancler said in an email this week. “The demolition permit application has not yet been filed for the existing structures.”
Fancler, who said the city hasn’t had any direct contact with Roundy’s, said the renderings show the store covering 73,246 square feet, which would make it about two percent smaller than the Dominick’s.
Members of the Planning & Zoning Commission were told that Mariano’s doors could be open 15 to 16 months after the City Council gives final approval to the plans.
Twitter @scarlman