"We got to four stores [in Chicago] faster than we anticipated, but the Dominick's closings provided an opportunity that we couldn't afford not to take advantage of," Co-President Jeff Heinen confirmed Thursday.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Less than two years after opening its first Chicago-area store in Barrington, Ill., Heinen's Fine Foods has just signed a lease to open a third store, in Bannockburn, and is on the verge of announcing a fourth, in Lake Bluff.
That's on top of Heinen's previously announced 19th store, opening in Glenview, Ill., this May, and its much-anticipated 20th store inside The 9 building in Downtown Cleveland this October.
"We got to four stores [in Chicago] faster than we anticipated, but the Dominick's closings provided an opportunity that we couldn't afford not to take advantage of," Co-President Jeff Heinen confirmed Thursday.
Both stores are former Dominick's Finer Foods locations that became available after its parent company, Safeway Inc., announced last October that it was leaving the Chicago market to focus on more profitable stores elsewhere.
Dominick's, with 72 stores, was the second-largest grocer in Greater Chicago after Jewel-Osco in terms of store count. Rivals including Mariano's Fresh Market and Whole Foods Market have been buying up its empty stores.
Heinen just learned on Feb. 14 that he had won the bid to take over the lease in Bannockburn, and expects to close the deal to take over the Lake Bluff lease on Monday. Both stores are in Lake County, north of Chicago's Cook County.
The Lake Bluff Dominick's, which closed at the end of December, is similarly sized to the Barrington and Glenview Heinen's at about 40,000 square feet. The 57,000-square-foot Bannockburn store, which closed for good Jan. 25, is at 2503 Waukegan Road in Bannockburn Green shopping center.
Heinen said he plans to extensively renovate both stores and reopen them under the Heinen's banner later this year. He also expects to hire more than 300 employees for its three Chicago-area stores, including about two dozen Dominick's workers, in addition to about 100 for its Downtown Cleveland store.
"There'll be some people who will transfer from Barrington, and a few people from Cleveland will transfer up there, but we don't expect it to be a large number," Heinen said.
Bannockburn Village Manager Maria Lasday said: "We're very excited about them coming here." She said the village's demographics are similar to Heinen's other communities and that residents are eager to welcome a high-end grocery store to 2503 Waukegan Road in the Bannockburn Green shopping center.
View full sizeHeinen's store in Glenview, Ill., its 19th, will open its doors in May.The Village of Bannockburn, about 25 miles north of Chicago, is about 30 minutes east of Heinen's Barrington store, which opened in August 2012. It is about 20 minutes north of its Glenview store, opening this May.
Bannockburn's population of 1,583 people balloons to about 25,000 in the daytime because of students at Trinity International University and workers at LTD Commodities, Walgreens and Netrix LLC. Bannockburn's median household income in 2011 was $166,467, about three times that of Illinois as a whole, and its median home value was $904,949.
Lasday said Heinen's would be the only grocery in Bannockburn, but that nearby grocery stores include a Sunset Foods in adjacent Lake Forest and Whole Foods in the Village of Deerfield.
The Village of Lake Bluff, about 30 miles north of Chicago, had a population of 5,722 in 2010, and a median home value of $671,900. There Heinen's will face competition from Jewel-Osco, The Fresh Market and Sunset Foods in next-door Lake Forest. Whole Foods has also expressed interest in moving in.
"We're very much looking forward to having Heinen's join our business community," said Joanna Rolek, executive director of the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Chamber of Commerce. "I haven't been out to the Barrington store, but I've heard great things about it."