MCKINLEY PARK — The developer with the deed on the former Wrigley gum factory is looking for a grocery store to anchor a future shopping center, according to Ald. Patrick D. Thompson (11th).
"They're working with a few different folks," Thompson said at a Wednesday night CAPS meeting at St. Barbara Church, offering a brief update about the historic structure at the southeast corner of 35th Street and Ashland Avenue. "They have a lot of interest in that shopping center."
Avgeris and Associates, the Oak Brook-based developer that bought the 32-acre property for about $5 million in 2012, is on a search for a popular food retailer to set up business on the site.
"They're looking for a food anchor because that really draws people to a shopping center," Thompson said.
There's been one problem, though: There haven't many options to pick from.
"Unfortunately right now there's not a whole lot that are out there," Thompson said. "Dominick's is out of business. There's a Mariano's right down the street."
Since the gum plant closed in 2006, the fenced-in building has been vacant.
In 2013, wrecking crews demolished part of the building — built in 1911 with 175,000 square feet of space to produce Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company’s signature gum flavors, like Spearmint and Doublemint.
There have since been rumblings of development — including a high-tech manufacturing hub — moving into the neighborhood.
In November, Thompson told DNAinfo Chicago the future of the former gum factory could be the key to transforming the stretch of 35th Street between Ashland Avenue and Halsted Street into a shopping center bustling with big-box retailers.
The second-year alderman hopes a retail center will one day draw shoppers from every corner of the 11th Ward.
"I'm hoping, between now and the end of the year we see some progress," Thompson said, "when they have some better idea of where they're going."
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