SYCAMORE – A Hy-Vee grocery store will anchor the redeveloped shopping plaza at DeKalb Avenue and Oakland Drive in Sycamore, the company announced Friday.
Iowa-based Hy-Vee is an employee-owned retailer with nearly 230 stores in eight Midwestern states, including 12 stores in Illinois. The new store will be located in the former Kmart building at 2700 DeKalb Ave. Local developer John Pappas began redeveloping the site last summer.
"It will be a great thing for the community," Pappas said. "It's a very well-run company, down-to-earth, high-class people, with great benefits for employees."
The store is expected to open in the spring of 2011 and will create 350 to 400 jobs, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
Though initial plans for the redevelopment included tearing down the former Kmart store, Hy-Vee will instead renovate that building, Pappas said. A company news release said the store is expected to be about 93,000 square feet and will include a dine-in food court, pharmacy, liquor department, Caribou Coffee shop and a meeting room that will double as a cooking school.
Other features include a registered dietitian on staff and a health food department containing natural, organic and special dietary foods, according to the news release. The company also plans to build a gas station and convenience store on an outlot in the shopping center.
Hy-Vee had looked at several locations in the DeKalb-Sycamore area before deciding on the site, senior vice president of real estate and engineering Dennis Ausenhus said in the news release.
"We see tremendous opportunities for Hy-Vee in this market," he said. "Hy-Vee traditionally has done well in university communities, and our redevelopment of this site should serve as a catalyst for further retail growth in the area."
Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy noted the shopping center, which he called a "triple-A highway location," has underperformed in terms of sales tax revenue for years. Kmart closed in 2002, and the building has since housed a local furniture store. With Hy-Vee as an anchor, Mundy said he hopes Pappas is able to attract more businesses to fill out the plaza.
"We're very happy that site, which is so well-situated for a highway business, will be alive and hopefully thriving," he said. "We look at this as a regional asset, not only for Sycamore but for the entire area."
In March, the Sycamore City Council agreed to give Pappas a $150,000 grant to help rehabilitate the location, including entrance and parking lot renovations. The grant was intended to help Pappas make the site more attractive to potential tenants.
"We're very hopeful the city's little investment in John Pappas' idea will reap big benefits," Mundy said. "Except for that little bit of seed money, there have been no other incentives."
About Hy-Vee
• Founded in 1930 in Beaconsfield, Iowa, by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg
• 229 employee-owned stores in eight states, employing more than 56,000 people
• 12 stores in Illinois
• In 2009, Hy-Vee recorded total sales of $6.4 billion, making it one of the top 30 grocery chains in the nation
Source: www.hy-vee.com
Plans for Sycamore
• 93,000-square-foot grocery store plus a gas station and convenience store in the same shopping center
• In-store Caribou Coffee shop
• Dine-in food court
• Pharmacy
• Liquor department
• Meeting room that will also house an in-store cooking school
• On-staff dietitian
• HealthMarket of organic, natural and specialty diet foods
• Expected to create 350-400 jobs
• Slated to open in spring 2011