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The one piece of the mixed-use Wilson Yard project in Uptown that has moved to completion is the relocation of the old Aldi store on Broadway to a new site next door, at 4500 N Broadway.
The new Aldi is now open, and for a grocery store, she don’t look so bad. Nearly every new grocery store we see these days front-loads the parking, which tends to kill a large stretch of street – not something Broadway can afford. By comparison, the new Aldi is fairly street friendly. Grocery stores aren’t known for their windows, but the blank facade is dressed up a little with multi-colored brick, an ornamental frame and a modern glass corner element. A nice little garden, which will probably be lush in a month, curves along the sidewalk.
The development will also include a Target store, 178 units of affordable housing and parking for several hundred cars. It has suffered the pullout of a movie theater, cost overruns, delays and threats from Target to withdraw over a proposed “big box” ordinance. Despite the obstacles, developer Peter Holsten has said in recent news reports that he expects completion in about two years.
The new Aldi will have an official grand opening on June 18.
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{ 3 comments }
Barry,
in terms of the parking the new Aldi is street friendly. In terms of creating a pedestrian friendly street it ain’t. Notice how the entrance is actually in the back of the store. The original renderings show the entrance in the front. Here is a link to the rendering.
This is a problem because many, possibly most, of the people who will shop there will be pedestrians. The sidewalk leading to the “entrance” is relatively narrow and anything more than two carts going in opposite directions is going to cause a problem.
Overall, the Aldi is an improvement over the old building, but not what was promised. Inside it is much nicer.
IP,
Yeah, a second street-side entrance would have been nice, and if they couldn’t manage that, a wider sidewalk allowing passage to Broadway.
But this is still much better than any new grocery store design I’ve seen in the city recently. These things tend to be solid red shoeboxes behind a moat of parking.
The reality, even in Uptown, is that the car is king when it comes to groceries. The percentage of pedestrian shoppers is probably higher here than in much of the city, but my guess is that the car still rules the day, and that’s what Aldi designed for.
Most of the people who shop there are pedestrians or people who take a bus there. The only time there were a significant number of cars in the “old” Aldi parking lot was on weekends. That Aldi seems to draw people from a good chunk of the north lakefront because of their pricing. Only other real choices anywhere from Irving to the Evanston border are a variety of Jewel or Dominicks locations.
In Uptown a tremendous amount of people don’t own cars either through choice or because of cost. You literally see people waiting for buses on either side of Broadway with their groceries. My guess is many of those people live in Edgewater, Rogers Park or even points south.
In any case it is better than the old Aldi and does serve a legitimate need.
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