Hell Freezes Over: Lakeshore East Gets a Grocery

Nearly six years ago we were first promised by a Lakeshore East sales staffer that a grocery store was coming "soon."  Now, three years after we moved out of Lakeshore East, the former golf course at the corner of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan is finally, really, truly, going to get a grocery store.

Crain's Chicago Business reports that Milwaukee grocery store chain Roundy's has signed a lease to open a store in a space that was at first supposed to be a Treasure Island and then a Target and then... well, it was anybody's guess for a long while.

The store will be inside a three-story $60 million building called "Village Market Center" backed up against 340 On the Park, filling in an area that's been pretty much mud since 2002.  Construction is scheduled to start around May-ish... assuming a construction loan can be landed by Magellan Development.

Grocery shopping for the 10,000 or so people who live in Lakeshore East is more than a little bit of a chore.  There's a store in the basement of Harbor Point Tower, but it's little more than a glorified 7-Eleven.

The best option for a while was the Bockwinkle store inside the Park Millennium.  But that ended a couple of years ago when the public toilet elevator connecting Lakeshore East with Upper Columbus Drive was demolished to make way for the construction of Aqua .

That left people with two options: schlep their groceries over the river and through the woods from the Dominick's at The Fairbanks , or get them delivered from Peapod.  We went with Peapod during our stay at Lakeshore East.

One interesting note is that the Crain's report states that Fifth Third bank plans to open a branch inside Village Market Center.  There is already a full Fifth Third branch inside The Shoreham .  It remains to be seen if that will stay open.  Considering that it took five years to get Rom to move into The Shoreham, finding a replacement for that Fifth Third could prove challenging.