Chicago Gets New Stores

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Aug 4, 2004 3:39PM

Get ready for some new stores around Chicago - Marsh Supermarket and Kohl's department store are on their way.

Marsh, an Indianapolis-based grocery chain, will begin building a store in Naperville in September and will also be looking for other Chicago area locations in which to build. The store that Marsh is building in Naperville is what they're calling a "lifestyle" concept store. It will be 66,000 square feet and will feature a naturally lit courtyard filled with produce, ethnic foods, seasonal items and a coffee bar. Other products in the store are grouped by category and are in separate rooms surrounding the courtyard. Sounds interesting.. and like a way that it would be distinctly different from say Jewel or Dominick's. Chicagoist has never been to Marsh because most of their stores now are Indiana.. and Ohio.. and we don't go those states much because.. uh.. what's the point?.. but we're excited to see what exactly this lifestyle store is all about.

As for Kohl's, it will be opening its first store within the Chicago city limits as early as October. The site will be the long-vacant block on North Elston that used to be the DuPont Chemical Co. paint factory - a site that was once considered as a possible Ikea store. And this isn't any ordinary Kohl's .. this store will be the first two-level Kohl's structure in the Midwest and, at 132,000 sq. ft., it will be about 1 1/2 times the size of a normal Kohl's store.

Also on the site will be a brand new Best Buy, scheduled to open early in 2005. Kohl's and Best buy will share a 350-car parking garage.