Apr 29, 2009 2:27 pm US/Central
New Whole Foods Will Be World's Third Largest
New Store Will Replace First Chicago Store, Which Opened In 1993
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Whole Foods store at 1000 W. North Ave. will soon close and be replaced with a new store at Sheffield and Kingsbury, the third largest in the world.
CBS
Whole Foods plans to open its third largest store on the city's Near North Side, and it will be part grocery store and part theme park, according to a published report.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that the 75,000-square-foot store set to open at Sheffield Avenue and Kingsbury Street will be third largest store in the world, after the high-end grocery and health product chain's Austin, Texas, headquarters, and the London flagship store.
The store will include old-time Chicago streetlights in the aisles and a replica of the Water Tower among the loft-style high ceilings, and will have a riverwalk alongside the North Branch of the Chicago River outside, according to the Sun-Times. The paper reported that the store will also feature seven themed restaurants, serving everything from subs and rotisserie to wine and cheese and named for Chicago neighborhoods and past and present – Wicker Park, Pilsen, Taylor Street, Riverview.
There will also be a stage for musical performances at the store's coffee and beer bar, and a mix-and-match cookie and trail mix station, according to the Sun-Times.
The store opens May 20, and replaces the Whole Foods at 1000 W. North Ave., which was the first Whole Foods in the Chicago market. The old store closes May 17, the Sun-Times reported.
The North Avenue Whole Foods opened in 1993 in what was then the still up-and-coming Clybourn Corridor, with its health food-driven Quixotic Café on the top floor.
Back when the old location opened, the area immediately south of North Avenue where the new store is locating was a largely desolate industrial district in the shadow of the Cabrini-Green public housing high rises just to the southeast. But the area is now home to the trendy Weed Street nightclub district, an old Navy Store and other high-end retailers.
A stone's throw away from the new Whole Foods will be a
new Apple Store, which is set to open on a triangle of land bounded by North Avenue, Clybourn Avenue and Halsted Street.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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