Alderman: TIF assistance needs to growto replace South Shore Dominick’s
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said last month he was prepared to authorize a tax- increment financing subsidy “north of $ 10 million” to bring a new grocery store to the Shore Shore site of Chicago’s only shuttered Dominick’s that has yet to find a replacement grocer.
It looks like City Hall might have to go a bit further “north” to seal the deal with Shop & Save.
On Monday, City Hall announced that Shop & Save had signed a purchase agreement to build a new grocery store in Jeffery Plaza, 2101 E. 71st Street, in up to 40,000 of the 60,000 vacant square feet that Dominick’s left behind five years ago.
But local Ald. Leslie Hairston ( 5th) said the deal now calls for Shop & Save to acquire the entire shopping center, which means the company will need TIF assistance for acquisition costs as well as the “build- out” inside the grocery store.
“Before we were just talking about a lease for the site of the old Dominick’s . . . For the build- out of the store alone, we were talking about $ 7 million or $ 8 million. Now, we’re looking at the whole shopping center. You’ve got to go higher [ on the subsidy] . . . for the acquisition of the shopping center,” Hairston said.
“In order for them to do the things that they want to do in terms of acquiring new tenants, I think it’s important. And you have an owner that doesn’t want to be an owner anymore. The shopping center is for sale.”
Hairston has spent the last five years pressuring Emanuel to lean on CEOs of major grocery chains and demand that somebody — anybody— fill the gaping hole that Dominick’s left behind in 2013.
After waiting longer than she ever dreamed she would have to wait for an oasis in her “food desert,” Hairston demanded that the mayor do whatever it takes to seal the deal.
“The city should go as high as they need to go to make this happen. We do it on every other deal. Our neighborhood deserves the same as other neighborhoods the city goes to bat for,” Hairston said.
“Because I have a large number of seniors in a very densely populated area, it’s difficult for people to get food and people have the basic human need to eat every day” so they have to take buses, get relatives to drive them to grocery stores far away or both.
Mayoral spokesman Grant Klinzman said the city won’t know the exact amount of TIF assistance until after the “diligence period” is over.
“The mayor is proud to invest in the South Shore neighborhood and remains committed to getting this grocery store built,” Klinzman wrote in an email.
Over the years, Hairston has accused Emanuel of “announcing grocery stores all over everywhere, except in the place that needs it the most.”
Now, she has the mayor right where she wants him: under pressure to deliver the long- stalled project in the run- up to the 2019 mayoral and aldermanic elections.
“It’s safe to say that everybody will be moving as fast as possible to make this happen. This has been a long time coming,” the alderman said.
Last month, Shop & Save signed a letter of intent to open the new grocery store.