Pete’s Fresh Market’s new Oak Park store location has been in-the-works for the better part of a decade, but the store still doesn’t have an open date for customers months after it was promised.
A grocery store planned for the lot at 640-728 Madison St. has been in development since 2018, three years after the family-owned chain store’s first location opened in Oak Park in a former Dominck’s store on Lake Street. After years of construction delays and permit extensions attributed to the Covid pandemic, supply chain issues, the loss of the site’s original architect and other delays, construction on the store appears to be nearing its conclusion.
Village officials told Wednesday Journal they don’t yet know when the new location will open. The village will be invoicing the developers for fines over the construction delay, officials confirmed last week.
As part of the grocery chain’s most recent deal with the village, Pete’s Fresh Market had to receive a Certificate of Occupancy permit by Sunday, Feb. 15 or face fines, village officials said in a statement earlier this year.
“Based on the last and sixth Redevelopment Agreement amendment’s (ORD 24-143) schedule, staff has determined that Pete’s has until Feb. 15 to receive a Certificate of Occupancy without penalty,” village officials said. “If they do not, then they will be subject to the Default provision which states that if they fail to meet the project schedule the village shall be reimbursed for the village’s lost opportunity costs, (i.e., lost sales tax revenue, alcoholic liquor dealer lot tax revenue and lost increase in property taxes), which they will pay the village, on a monthly basis an amount of $45,760 each month or a portion thereof on a pro rata basis.”
The Pete’s project received a sign code variance approval from Oak Park’s Zoning Board of Appeals on May 6. The project’s sign contractor Tom Holland gave a brief update on the construction to the Zoning Board at that meeting.
“They were shooting for May but seeing that the basement and parking garage are not fully completed yet, I’m not sure how much longer that will take, between the electrical coming into the building and all that,” Holland said.
Jennifer Ban, who lives in a condo building close to the future grocery store site, recently complained about the grocery store’s construction at an Oak Park village board meeting. She said the village needs to hold the company “accountable” on both safety impacts to the area and the project timeline.
“The project continues to demonstrate a years’ long pattern of poor communication, lack of transparency and failure of accountability which has directly impacted the residents of our building and our block,” Ban said. “We understand that this is not the same village board and president who entered into this agreement with Pete’s Market years ago, but this is the village board who needs to hold Pete’s accountable. Pete’s has failed to meet every deadline and agreement they’ve entered into.”
“The fact that they stopped communicating with us, is likely because they don’t think anyone is watching anymore.”
Pete’s project manager Eugene Grzynkowicz told Oak Park’s village board last June that construction was moving at a pace that would allow the grocery store to open in either December or January of 2025.
“You all have seen the progress grade a lot of vertical steel standing now and masonry, we completed our north wall, I don’t want to get contentious with our neighbors but we are just about at the end,” Grzynkowicz said at a village board meeting last summer. “We are on our next phase, which will be topping off with the top of the roof and we will be proceeding with the exterior masonry on Madison Street. Our parking lot is complete, as you see to the west. We have artwork up, which is looking nice. Once it is done it will close it up and decorate that corner. That is where we stand. We are on schedule and happy to open up as soon as possible.”
Grzynkowicz did not respond to requests for comment from Wednesday Journal for this story
The grocery store chain’s other location in the village is located at 259 Lake St.