THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2007
Long Awaited Trader Joe's Opens Friday
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
Stop the presses, Park Ridge, here's a very big deal for the city that isn't controversial.
One of the most talked-about, and universally agreed-upon "good things" in the city in recent decades, will come to fruition this Friday morning, Mar. 2, at 8:30 a.m.
It's the opening of Trader Joe's specialty grocery store in Uptown. Mayor Howard Frimark will be on hand, along with Trader Joe's officials, for a preliminary ribbon-cutting ceremony and brief remarks before the store opens later that day.
The ceremony will take place at the store's front door on the parking lot side of its building, or the side opposite from Northwest Highway.
Actually, according to one city spokesperson, it may be a "lei opening", since members of Trader Joe's management are reportedly originally from Hawaii.
Ever since the Uptown Redevelopment Study Committee began work back in the '90s, something like this has been dreamed of by city officials. It came to reality about a year ago, when it was announced that "an unnamed specialty grocery chain" signed a lease to occupy about 15,000 square feet in the first commercial building constructed in the redevelopment project being constructed by PRC Partners.
Trader Joe's, reportedly to be managed by "store captain" Scott Sarver (this firm marches to its own drummer on almost everything) is expected to be the anchor of about 20 new businesses, including several restaurants, that are expected to occupy Target Area Two in the core of Uptown.
Already open in the same building as the grocer are Joseph A. Bank men's clothiers and Chico's Women's apparel.
Trader Joe's originally said it would open by Thanksgiving, 2006, but that plan was postponed while the firm brought in furnishings and products and trained its staff.
"They have told us they will have a grand opening in the near future, but they agreed to have a little ceremony with Mayor Frimark for their actual opening this week," said Aggie Stempniak, city public information coordinator.
The Target Area Two redevelopment already includes 24 new townhomes and rowhouses, and one commercial-condo building. By the middle of 2008, it will also include more than a dozen new businesses, more than 130 condominiums, and an underground parking garage accommodating several hundred vehicles.