Oswego hopeful for tenant for former Dominick's space

Oswego officials remain hopeful that a new retail tenant or tenants can be found to lease space in the former Dominick’s Finer Foods store in the Oswego Commons shopping center on Route 34 just west of Douglas Road.

Dominick’s served as an anchor store, along with Target, when the center opened in 2001. But the supermarket closed in 2013, and the space has remained vacant.

Village Administrator Dan DiSanto and Economic Development Director Corinna Cole recently discussed the village’s desire to see the 65,636 square feet of retail space occupied.

“We’re open to anybody looking to take that place,” DiSanto said.

“We’re always working with partners and stakeholders and seeing what we can do,” Cole added. “It’s hard to say for sure. We try to operate based on what we see in other communities [and] how vacancies are filled.”

Albertson’s, the parent company for Jewel-Osco, assumed the lease payments on the former Dominick’s space when Dominick’s closed. Albertson’s contract with the shopping center owners is set to expire in 2021, but the firm has an option to extend it for five years, according to village officials.

Albertson’s operates two Jewel-Osco stores in the village, one on Route 30 in The Towne’s Crossing shopping center and the other on Orchard Road, just north of Route 34.

It is unclear whether the company will seek to extend its lease beyond next year. A call to the Albertson’s media relations department was not returned in time for publication.

In recent years, similar large, vacant retail spaces have been filled in other shopping centers in the village along Route 34. After Bed Bath & Beyond closed in 2016 in Gerry Centennial Plaza, the space was filled in 2018 by Altitude Trampoline Park. Farther east on Route 34, the massive space left by Lowe’s departure was split into multiple stores, including a Burlington Coat Factory.

Splitting large retail spaces into multiple stores has become a practice in many communities across the country, Cole said.

“It’s a trend that’s happening,” she added, especially in the wake of online shopping and smaller specialty stores.

If the opportunity comes to fill Dominick’s with a grocery store, DiSanto said that a smaller specialty store may be a good fit to split the storefront with another business, like Fresh Thyme, or a Trader Joe’s – a repeated wish of many residents of Oswego.