OLD TOWN — The long-vacant Treasure Island store in Old Town will be filled by an independent grocery store that just closed after 45 years in the Gold Coast.
Fern Hill, the developers proposing a 36-story tower and overhaul of several prominent properties in Old Town, signed a letter of intent with Commissary Market to fill the former grocery store at 1639 N. Wells St.
The deal comes weeks after the Commissary, a locally owned grocery store tucked into the lobby of a residential high-rise at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive, closed after failed lease negotiations with its landlord.
The new Commissary will be about double the size of its current location and offer the same selection of meat, produce, frozen foods, dairy and other groceries it’s known for carrying, said George Bockwinkel, who took over ownership of the store form his brother, who owns and operates three Bockwinkel’s grocery stores in Chicago.
“Having to close our Gold Coast location was like a blessing in disguise,” Bockwinkel said. “Because that’s what led to Fern Hill finding me and asking if we’d be interested in joining Old Town. It’s such a great location, it’s like we hit the goldmine.”
Bockwinkel described the grocery store as a “‘Cheers’-like operation.”
“It’s a family-owned, friendly operation where we knew everybody who came in to shop and people would come by just to visit the Commissary staff and myself,” Bockwinkel said.
Nick Anderson, founder and president of Fern Hill, said he learned of the Commissary after reading about its closing in Block Club. The developers had already been scouting for a grocery store tenant to fill the location after learning from community feedback that bringing a grocery store back to the area was among their top concerns.
“We made a commitment early on to the community and to the alderman that we wouldn’t pursue alternative uses for that space other than a grocery store,” Anderson said. “So it feels rewarding to have gotten really lucky by being patient and focused on finding the right one.”
The remodeled Treasure Island building is among a series of properties being overhauled under Fern Hill’s plans, which revolve around building a 395-foot tower at the northwest corner of North Avenue and LaSalle Drive, which is a surface parking lot.
The project is designed by architects from GREC, a Chicago-based firm that took over when architect David Adjaye stepped away from the project amid sexual misconduct accusations at his firm.
The project includes partnerships with the neighboring Moody Church campus around 1635 N. LaSalle Drive and the Walgreens at 1601 N. Wells St. that would transform other parts of the area.
The new Commissary will occupy a portion of the former Treasure Island building, Anderson said. That would allow the Walgreens to temporarily move into the rest of the space while its current location is being renovated.
After gathering community feedback in October on six designs for the Walgreens, Fern Hill has settled on one that uses a brick facade with masonry textures reminiscent of the neighboring townhomes, Anderson said.
Should Fern Hill find a larger tenant to fill the old Treasure Island building, the Commissary could move into the ground-floor retail space of the tower at North and LaSalle, Anderson said.
“It’s like we finally found all the puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together,” Anderson said.
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