A $19 million shopping center is coming to Naperville.
Details About The Shopping Center
Thompson Thrift Retail Group has bought what used to be the Fair Ford Oaks dealership on the northwest corner of East Ogden Avenue and North Naper Boulevard, and plan to turn the 46,000-square-foot area into a shopping center.
“The site itself has some great real-estate fundamentals,” said Ryan Menard, vice president of development at Thompson Thrift Retail Group. “It’s boarded on three sides by good access roads and the site has been standing vacant for a number of years. In talking with the city we met early on we realized it was a key piece for them to have it redeveloped as well.”
Construction on the 4.2-acre area is expected to begin this fall and then open in late 2021 with an undisclosed national business as its anchor.
East Ogden Corridor
The shopping center is the latest effort to revitalize the East Ogden corridor. The new shopping center will sit directly across from Naperville’s second Costco Warehouse, which Mayor Steve Chrirco said has had a halo-effect on other businesses.
“We know intuitively that once Costco was announced, immediately those vacant properties that have been sitting vacant for years, the old restaurants and things like that, immediately went under contract,” said Chirico. “People recognize the value of locating another business near the Costco warehouse.”
Restaurant businesses that have recently set up shop at the East Ogden corridor include Guzman y Gomez, Culver’s, and Andy’s Custard.
Now the city will shift its focus on filling the vacant building that used to be Dominick’s and the Ogden area will be transformed.
“People aren’t going to recognize it in two years, it’s going to be a completely different business area,” said Chirico. “You know, people, I think, were frustrated the pace that we were moving at, but you just have to have persistence, stick with it, and keep working at it and eventually it kind of comes together.”
More details about the shopping center will be released in the coming months.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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