WICKER PARK — Bow Truss Coffee Roasters will open in two upcoming Wicker Park apartment projects and the company is hoping for a third local spot in a proposed Bucktown apartment building next to the CTA Blue Line Western "L" stop, its owner said.
"We are being approached by amazing landlords/builders that are looking to build us great spaces to do what we do best," Phil Tadros, owner of Chicago-based chain Bow Truss, said this week.
If everything goes as planned, in 2017 Bow Truss will sell coffee on the ground floor of a six-story, 60-unit building at 1664 W. Division St., around the corner from the CTA Division Blue Line "L" station. It will also open in a 95-unit apartment building anchored by Aldi on the southeast corner of Milwaukee and Leavitt at 1749-69 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Along the Bucktown/Logan Square border, a proposed 44-unit apartment building at 1920 N. Milwaukee Ave. could also see a Bow Truss in its ground floor, Tadros said.
In the Milwaukee/Leavitt spot, which is next to The 606's elevated Bloomingdale Trail, Bow Truss will share the ground-level retail spot with Aldi and a not-yet-determined restaurant.
Both mixed-use residential and retail sites are being developed by Centrum Partners, a River North firm that Tadros said has invested in Bow Truss.
"Centrum is a fan of Bow Truss and are regulars at our Wells shop," Tadros said.
State records show that Bow Trust Coffee Roasters and Bow & Trust LLC are majority owned by Tadros' Doejo, a Chicago-based Web-design and consulting firm of which Tadros and business partner Darren Marshall are the sole members.
Tadros told Crain's last month that Bow Truss has five other investors but is entertaining options to take on additional partners to fund its expansion.
At a neighborhood meeting last week about a different project, Centrum officials declined to comment on whether they had invested in Bow Truss but confirmed the coffee shop has been tapped to operate out of the Division Street and Milwaukee Avenue developments.
Tadros said the Division Street storefront, expected to be completed by the end of the year, will have an outdoor patio.
The Aldi apartments redevelopment is set to begin this spring, according to grocery store workers who told DNAinfo Chicago that they've been waiting to hear word about when the store would close, since it was first scheduled to shutter for construction in January.
A spokeswoman for the Wicker Park Aldi said last week that a specific date for the store closing has yet to be determined but the company will be sure to "share additional details on the date once it becomes available."
Christopher Ilekis, a principal at developer Vequity, said Monday that his firm is in negotiations with Bow Truss for multiple locations that are owned by Vequity-affiliated entities but has not yet finalized a lease for the 1920 N. Milwaukee Ave. spot.
"We are in the final stages of approvals with the City of Chicago for this project and excited about bringing this proposed development to the Bucktown/Logan Square communities," Ilekis said.
Elsewhere in the city, Bow Truss is also eyeing the former Jazz Record Mart at 27 E . Illinois St.
Asked why Bow Truss is expanding so rapidly, Tadros issued the following statement:
"Bow Truss has such a great product, team, culture and the demand is so high to bring us into these properties and neighborhoods that saying no to expansion is impossible. The terms and relationships just keep getting better and if we can open up more safe havens pouring delicious coffees we naturally will," Tadros said.
The jazz mart plans are part of a Bow Truss expansion involving at least nine new coffee shops by the end of next year.
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