After suffering a double dose of bad retail news in recent months, Matteson said it has secured a new grocery store for the former Dominick’s location.
Pete’s Fresh Market, which has a dozen locations in the Chicago area, plans a 75,000-square-foot store, the village said in a news release.
With the exception of an Aldi store on Cicero Avenue north of U.S. 30, Matteson has been without a traditional full-line grocery store since the mass exodus of Dominick’s from the Chicago area in 2013.
Locally, Pete’s Fresh Market has stores in Bridgeview, Calumet City and Evergreen Park. Late last year, New Lenox officials announced that the grocer plans a store in that village.
The company will open in Matteson Plaza, at the southwest corner of U.S. 30 and Governors Highway/Crawford Avenue. Dominick’s and Value City used to anchor the retail center, which is now home to stores including Shoppers World and Furniture and Mattress Depot and Sally Beauty.
The shopping center is owned by Washington Prime Group, which was founded in May 2014 after being spun-off from Simon Property Group, the owner of malls including Orland Square in Orland Park, according to its website.
The village said in the release that trustees had approved an economic incentive agreement with Pete’s at Tuesday’s Village Board meeting, with a public-private partnership being used to renovate the vacant space. The village said the cost of the project is $8 million and will create 150 jobs.
Specifics of the economic incentive agreement were not available, and a village official did not respond to messages left Thursday at village hall.
Word of the agreement comes as Matteson is preparing for the departure of two other big-box stores — Sam’s Club and Target.
The Matteson Sam’s Club is scheduled to close no later than Jan. 26 — the Wal-Mart it’s attached to closed in spring 2016 and relocated to Richton Park — and Target will close Feb. 3.
The village had, in a news release issued after the announcement by Wal-Mart that dozens of Sam’s Club stores would close, said the timing “came as a surprise,” and that more than 150 employees of the store would be impacted.
The village said in the release that a town hall meeting would be scheduled “in the very near future to share the direction and vision” of the village.
The 126,000-square-foot Matteson Target store, 4647 Promenade Way, opened in late July 2007 as part of a redevelopment plan for adjacent Lincoln Mall, which has since been demolished with the exception of the Carson Pirie Scott store.
At the time of the announcement in early November, a Target spokeswoman said the company decides to close a store after “seeing several years of decreasing profitability.”
Matteson had previously approved a tax increment financing district that included the mall and adjacent land, with Promenade Way being built to provide access from U.S. 30 and Cicero to Target as well as a free-standing J.C. Penney department store.
Pete’s Fresh Market plans a store opening in Willowbrook and, in New Lenox, could be part of a development along U.S. 30 that also would include a Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant. In that project, the village plans a partnership to buy a 9.5-acre site and develop the property, with tentative plans calling for a 65,000-square-foot grocery store.
In 2012, Pete’s had filed plans with Orland Park that called for building a store on property near 143rd Street and LaGrange Road that, at the time, was home to new-car dealer Terry’s Lincoln. Plans at the time called for an 80,000-square-foot store.
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