Aldi is coming to Shorewood's Market Street area

Within the next calendar year, Aldi will begin to build a new location in the Shorewood Market Street area, north of Home Depot, which is located at 621 Brook Forest Ave.

The village of Shorewood Board of Trustees unanimously voted during Tuesday’s regular meeting to approve a final site plan for the Aldi Fresh Market store.

“It was a rumor one year ago I heard Aldi was coming to Shorewood; well I guess they are coming to Shorewood,” Trustee Stevan Brockman said.

Brockman said this site plan came to the planning and zoning commission on Nov. 7, and the only concern was traffic. A new early learning center will go in just west of the proposed Aldi site, and the committee was concerned with 80 to 90 children coming in the morning and leaving at night. He said both businesses will have entrances and exits to Black Road, and he does not foresee any traffic issues.

The location will be 20,000 square feet, but that is only a portion of the land acquired. The rest of the property will be open to other retail space and community development. Director Rod Tonelli said it will be up to Aldi to sell those spaces. Brockman said he hopes having an Aldi in that space will attract new business to the area and fill up the spots between it and Home Depot.

The entrance to the store will be off Black Road, and the parking lot will be refurbished.

In the planning and zoning memorandum from Tonelli, the site design outlined specific features of the space. The existing barrier will be extended in hopes to stop unwanted cut-through traffic, which now exists when motorists want to avoid the light just east of the entrance. A right-turn-only sign will also direct traffic.

Deliveries and loading will take place in the southwest portion of the building and will be accessed from the west service drive, which now serves Home Depot. Additionally, Aldi will include landscaping along the building and parking lot.

“This gives us another place to shop. Mariano’s and Jewel have had their way for a long time,” Brockman said.

Currently Aldi has a store on Route 59 and Caton Farm Road, but Trustee Dan Warren did not think that would cause concern for competition because it is about 6 miles from the new location. Brockman said he felt Aldi does its homework on store location. He said the new store on the west side of Joliet rarely has a parking spot open.

Village engineers and staff will need to approve all final plans. Aldi officials hope to begin building in late 2019 and have the store completed by the summer of 2020.