An Amazon Fresh grocery store opened up at 3116 Route 59 last week – the fifth of its kind in the country and the first outside of California.
“It’s pretty impressive that they selected us and I’m sure that wasn’t by throwing a dart at a map,” said Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico. “That was very intentional. I’m sure they researched their market and determined this would be the right place for them to be.”
Innovative Features
The new location uses features like a “dash cart” that scans items as you put them in your cart. But the new store should also bring more to the area than innovation.
“It’s an occupied, productive building that generates property tax for our schools and park district and all the other taxing bodies and it employs people,” said Chirico. “And those people will buy goods and services throughout our city and that drives more sales tax. So it’s commerce more than anything.”
Filling Large Vacancies
Chirico has made filling large vacant buildings like that one a priority during his time in office. The city has now filled four out of the five targeted anchor locations.
“I think it’s really a big accomplishment for our city because there’s not a lot of users for these types of facilities so we had to think outside the box. Mall of India, the old Sam’s Club, we know the Costco story and now with Amazon Fresh taking this parcel down here we really were able to successfully do something that a lot of cities are struggling with.”
The remaining location to be filled is the former Dominick’s at Ogden Avenue and North Aurora Road. Chirico said that lot is still under lease with Albertson’s, but once that expires in August, the city is confident it will fill-in quickly.
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
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