Jewel-Osco Updates Image With New Chicago Store

Albertson Cos.’ Chicago-area Jewel-Osco banner is going upscale with its latest store -- a 45,000-square-foot multilevel market expected to open this summer in the Windy City’s Old Town neighborhood.

The new store, on the northwest corner of Clark and Division streets in Chicago, will be topped by three levels of parking and linked to a 390-unit, 35-story luxury apartment building, all currently under construction, according to published reports.

"We really wanted to make a statement for the Jewel-Osco brand,” Dave Hene, the banner’s senior real estate manager, told the Chicago Tribune. “You can't take a store in this kind of property and just put in what you would do in any other neighborhood or out in the suburbs. We really want to put forth a new image.”

Creating a New Image

It’s safe to say that most folks who grew up shopping at Jewel-Osco, the Chicago market’s leading grocery retailer, know it as a typical neighborhood supermarket.

But as retailers like Mariano’s and Whole Foods Market, both of which have rolled out upscale city stores, raise the bar on the shopper experience, Jewel-Osco has been playing catch-up. Described as the banner’s “swankiest, most contemporary” market, the store will include a 15,000-square-foot mezzanine level with a full-service bar and fresh prepared foods. The store will also include an on-site dining area, something that existing Jewel-Osco stores have been slow to adopt amid its capital projects spree underway since Dominick’s folded three years ago.

The new store’s location sits near Chicago’s Gold Coast and Near North Side, growing areas with healthy incomes but limited grocery options. "We had the opportunity to build something unique and right for the area,"  Jewel-Osco President Mike Withers told the Tribune. "We're committed to opening new stores and growing in the market.”

Jewel-Osco’s new store at Clark and Division replaces an older, smaller market built in 1974; it closed in June 2015 and was torn down.