The Dominick’s Fresh Store on the far southern border of Park Ridge will have the grocery chain’s first underground parking lot.
Shoppers will be able to leave their galoshes in the trunk when they pull into the 143-spot underground lot, which will be equipped with indoor elevators and escalators wide enough to accommodate a person and a cart.
Necessity was the driving force.
Northlake-based Dominick’s Finer Foods wanted to keep its lucrative location at or near Higgins Road and Cumberland Avenue, but there was not enough room on its property for its 70,000-square-foot superstore and the required 321 parking spots.
So the store will have indoor and outdoor parking.
“This definitely will be a first for Dominick’s and I can’t say it will be the last,” said spokeswoman Andrea Brand. “We wanted to stay in Park Ridge, and it is a very good performing store.”
The Dominick’s is the town’s biggest food store. Jewel Food Stores has a smaller store at Busse Highway and Greenwood Avenue, as well as a store at Oakton Street and Milwaukee Avenue in Niles.
Dominick’s may expand its Starbucks Cafe, and the “Fresh Store” concept will include expanded floral and produce departments, an expanded bakery, more prepared foods and a sit-down area to eat them.
Other suburbs with more land for development and a larger cross-section of buyers have seen the likes of organic foods chain Whole Foods, Wild Oats or experiments in produce. But Park Ridge and some other close-in suburbs have not been on the cutting edge as Chicago’s grocery industry got a face lift in the last five years.
But even Park Ridge has its experiments. Three partners bought the Morningfield’s independent grocery last fall at Devon and Cumberland Avenues. They plan to renovate the store and focus on gourmet foods and prepared meals, said co-owner Suzanne Wrobel.
The new owners hope they have a winning formula with a personal touch at a store where the owner knows their names, Wrobel said.
“We are telling Dominick’s to build as big as they want. People who shop with us want a small neighborhood store where everyone knows everyone,” she said.
At Bill’s Quality Meats on Main Street, owner Randy Krussell of Arlington Heights hopes for the same. He grew up in Park Ridge and relies on loyal customers coming to the 30-year-old butcher shop.
“When they want a good cut of meat, they come to me,” he said.
But the new Dominick’s will have expanded meat and seafood counters, too, and will continue to draw customers from nearby Chicago neighborhoods, as well as Norridge and Rosemont, Brand said.
Building an underground lot meant more expense for Dominick’s, she said. In addition, the Park Ridge City Council was concerned about purse snatchings and thefts at the store, which is adjacent to the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line.
It insisted on security cameras, but will not require security guards in the garage, said Joel Strassman, city planner.
“A lot of the close-in suburbs have a wealth of opportunity for economic development,” he said. “But you have to create your own raw land. Demolish what was there and build.”
