Heinen's Bannockburn store, inside a redesigned former Dominick's, is the brothers' second new store this year and their third and largest in Greater Chicagoland.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- At 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jeff and Tom Heinen will introduce Chicago-area shoppers to their 20th Heinen's Fine Foods store, a redesigned Dominick's Finer Foods in the largely residential Village of Bannockburn, Illinois.
The 62,000-square-foot store, about 30 miles north of Chicago, is the brothers' second new store this year and their third and largest in Greater Chicagoland.
View full sizeHeinen's Bannockburn store is larger and more spacious than its other three Chicago area stores. A fourth Illinois Heinen's will open this fall in the Village of Lake Bluff, at 201 S. Waukegan Road, followed by a long-anticipated Downtown Cleveland store in early 2015, inside The 9 building on East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue.
Tom Heinen said he is looking forward to opening the newest Heinen's location where Dominick's once had a very successful store.
He also confirmed that the company has signed a letter of intent to open its 23rd store in the Village of Chagrin Falls, inside the former Giant Eagle.
"We're very excited to have Heinen's become part of Bannockburn," Bannockburn Village Manager Maria Lasday said. "It's been a pleasure working with Jeff and Tom Heinen and their excellent, professional staff."
"Heinen's has brought excitement to the Bannockburn Green retail center as well as the rest of the community. We wish Tom and Jeff Heinen, as well as the rest of the Heinen's family, much success."
View full sizeHeinen's Bannockburn store, designed by Process Creative Studios, is the company's largest in Greater Chicago. She said the brothers have transformed the inside of the store at 2503 Waukegan Road, the largest and most spacious of their three Chicago locations. "It's very elegant and very tastefully done, with very high-quality materials."
John C. Williams, architect and founder of Process Creative Studios Inc., said: "I think any Clevelander that is a Heinen's shopper would walk into the new Bannockburn store and recognize it as a Heinen's. While we are continually looking to tweak and improve, based on earlier designs, there is a brand and familiarity to the store." Process Creative is also designing the Lake Bluff and Downtown Cleveland stores.
Both the Bannockburn and Lake Bluff stores became available after Dominick's 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, had been 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.
The Bannockburn Heinen's is about 4 miles west of Lake Michigan and about 30 minutes east of Heinen's Barrington store, which opened in August 2012. Bannockburn is also about 20 minutes north of the Glenview store that opened May 7.
Bannockburn was incorporated in 1929, the same year that German immigrant Joe Heinen opened the first Heinen's meat market and grocery store in what is now Shaker Heights.
View full sizeThe HeinensBannockburn.com website has a clock counting down the seconds until Wednesday's grand opening. The Village of Bannockburn's population of 1,583 balloons to about 32,000 in the daytime because of students at Trinity International University and workers at LTD Commodities, Walgreens and Netrix LLC, Lasday said.
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.
As in Ohio, Chicago-area Heinen's shoppers can designate a local school to receive a donation equal to 1 percent of their annual purchases.
Jeff Heinen has said he expects to hire more than 300 employees for the three Chicago-area stores, including some transfers from the Cleveland area, in addition to about 100 for its Downtown Cleveland store.
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.