STREETERVILLE — The "unsightly" outdoor escalator at the corner of Illinois and Orleans streets will be absorbed by the block-long building when it transforms from a shuttered Dominick's to a Whole Foods, Ald. Brendan Reilly said.
"Anyone who has spent time in the Streeterville neighborhood has probably noticed the unsightly outdoor escalator located at 255 E. Grand Ave. that has been inoperative, blocked-off and neglected for the past several years," Reilly (42nd) wrote in an email to the community late last week.
Calling the non-operating escalator from the previous grocery store tenant an "eyesore that has been boarded-up in perpetuity" and "a magnet for waste and graffiti," Reilly's office said they secured a promise from Whole Foods in a recent meeting to enclose the escalator as part of the food chain's move into the vacant storefront. The store is scheduled to open next year.
"Alderman Reilly applauds Whole Foods Market for this generous neighborly gesture as they complete the move into their new Streeterville home," the 42nd Ward newsletter announcement concluded.
The neighborhood eagerly awaits the addition of a new grocery store following the news last week that Mrs. Green's Natural Market had pulled out of plans to open in the former Fox and Obel spot at 225 E. Grand Ave.
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