Grocer continues to expand in the Windy City
Whole Foods Market has opened its second largest location in Chicagoland.
The supermarket retailer has opened a 76,000-sq.-ft. store in the city’s Lakeview area. It replaces an older Whole Foods across the street. The older store, which opened in 1996, closed the day the new store opened.
A large portion of the three primary building facades is covered with an innovative “LiveWall” greenspace that softens the building's sleek architecture, while providing greenery along the busy pedestrian corridors. (Whole Foods partnered with Chicago-based Novak Construction Inc. for the project.)
The lobby level includes a full-service roastery and coffee shop. The second-story retail level includes all the signature Whole Food offerings, with a big emphasis on in-store dining, with seating that overlooks floor-to-ceiling windows at the front and far side of the store. It features such options as a wine bar, pub, juice bar, and arcade with such old-school games as Ms. Pac Man and Donkey Kong.
Whole Foods currently operates 445 stores in the U.S. (including 12 in Chicago). It has approximately 80 new locations in the pipeline.