Tinley Park planners set public hearing on Pete’s Fresh Market store

Tinley Park’s Plan Commission will hold a public hearing June 17 concerning plans for a Pete’s Fresh Market store.

The chain is proposing an 88,600-square-foot store at 16300 Harlem Ave., and will, at the same time, build another 52,000 square feet of retail space to the north of the store.

The village last fall gave approval to Pete’s to use the shuttered Kmart, at the southwest corner of Harlem Avenue and 163rd Street, as a warehouse for dry goods and items such as store fixtures to free up more space for grocery storage at other locations.

The new grocery store would be north of the warehouse, and the entire site is a bit more than 24 acres. Pete’s has committed to opening the store by September 2022, and a future phase of development proposes out lots along Harlem.

Pete’s has 17 stores in the Chicago area, including Bridgeview, Calumet City, Evergreen Park, Lemont and Matteson. Stores are either underway or planned in New Lenox, Oak Lawn and Orland Park along with Tinley Park.

The Tinley Park building would be one of the few locations where Pete’s has built from scratch, and the grocer’s architects, Camburas & Theodore of Des Plaines, wrote in a Thursday memo that the Tinley Park store “is intended to be the best in their chain.”

“Pete’s will take all the details that it has incorporated in its development of their previous stores and craft them into what will be their most unique shopping experience to date,” the architects wrote.

North of the proposed Pete’s is an Aldi store and there is a Jewel-Osco a few blocks south at Harlem and 171st.

On the east side of Harlem, in Tinley Park Plaza, there is a Walt’s Food Center, but the store will leave the center later this year, according to the village. The shopping center is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation and the center owner is bringing in a new full-line grocer that has not yet been identified.

The Plan Commission recommended Thursday’s village approval of two small retail centers, both being developed by the same firm, Chicago-based Vequity, and both to include Starbucks coffee shops.

The Village Board will consider both proposals Tuesday.

Near the intersection of Harlem and 171st, the company plans a 7,400-square-foot multitenant building.

A rendering of a retail center planned for a site near the intersection of Harlem Avenue and 171st Street in Tinley Park which will include a Starbucks coffee shop. (Village of Tinley Park)

Starbucks, which will have a drive-through lane, will use about 2,200 square feet and the rest of the space would be able to accommodate up to three tenants.

Vequity is building a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station at the southwest corner of Harlem and 171st Street, and the new retail space will be directly south of that, with a driveway connection linking both sites.

The Chicago-based developer has completed a number of 7-Eleven/gas station combinations in the suburbs, including Bridgeview, Schaumburg and Woodridge.

The Plan Commission also recommended approval of a second Vequity project at the Park Hills Towne Center, on 171st between LaGrange Road and 94th Avenue.

The shopping center’s tenants include a CVS Pharmacy, Frankie’s Ristorante and Lou Malnati’s.

Vequity will convert a former bank building out lot at the southeast corner of LaGrange and 171st into a multitenant commercial space that will include a Starbucks with a drive-through window.

Starbucks will occupy just under 2,400 square feet of the nearly 5,600-square-foot space, which could accommodate one or two other tenants.

Plans were discussed during a meeting Thursday, though a technological glitch resulted in portions of the meeting, including the Pete’s discussion, not being recorded. The village streams meetings of the Village Board and Plan Commission, which are then available on the village’s YouTube channel.