Whole Foods Market confirms that its 31,500-square-foot Lakeview store, at 3300 North Ashland Avenue, will relocate to a 75,000-square-foot location at the Ashland, Lincoln and Belmont intersection. This new location will become the second largest Whole Foods Market in Chicagoland.
“The Lakeview community has steadily grown since we first opened our doors in 1996, but our store has remained the same size,” said Michael Bashaw, president of the company’s Midwest Region. “When the opportunity to build a larger, updated location, worthy of this great community, arose just down the street from our Lakeview store, we were very excited. We intend to design and build a fabulous new store that will exceed the expectations of our customers!”
Whole Foods Market will partner with Chicago-based Novak Construction Inc. for the project.
“It is more than a building and a business to them,” said John G. Novak, founder and president of Novak Construction Inc. “I am honored to work with a client like Whole Foods Market, one that is interested in the aesthetics and the architecture in relationship to the shopping experience.
“The forthcoming Lakeview store will showcase Whole Food Market’s tremendous acumen for tailoring the store to the neighborhood, and I know they are working hard with the architects to make this a hallmark building in that historic neighborhood.”
This new project is just one of many commitments Whole Foods Market has made to the Chicago community. The company recently opened its 20th Chicagoland store in the Streeterville neighborhood at 255 E. Grand Avenue and has plans to open six more locations this year; along with the highly anticipated Hyde Park and Englewood locations in 2016.
The Lakeview location originally opened Feb. 14, 1996, and was Whole Foods Market’s second store in the city of Chicago, and its third in Chicagoland. The company anticipates that the relocated store will open in the spring of 2017. Whole Foods Market’s newest location, near the DePaul campus, is slated to open on Feb. 25, 2015, at 959 W. Fullerton Avenue.
