Whole Foods planned for long-vacant space in building in Chicago's Lakeview community
Whole Foods will soon be moving into a vacant space in a relatively new commercial building in Chicago's Lakeview community, a local chamber of commerce group said.
The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce said in a social media post that the grocery retailer will be coming to the space at 827 W. Belmont Ave., in a vast building that spans the south side of the east-west thoroughfare from Clark Street on the west to Halsted Street on the east.
The building will also become home to VCA Blum Animal Hospital, which published reports say will be moving from its current location at 3219 N. Clark St. just north of Belmont Avenue.
The building, called Lakeview Connection, currently houses a Fifth Third Bank branch that fronts the southeast corner of Clark Street and Belmont Avenue. But the rest of the structure has been sitting vacant and waiting for tenants ever since it was finished.
The 60,000 square-foot Lakeview Connection building was completed in 2023 by Hubbard Street Group. It replaced a gray stone building that had also housed a Fifth Third Bank branch and dated back to 1921.
The old bank building, which carried an address of 3179 N. Clark St., was originally known as Lakeview State Bank and later Belmont National Bank. Preservation Chicago took issue with plans to demolish the building, and reports noted that a petition to keep it standing gathered more than 2,000 signatures, but the building nevertheless came down in 2021.
An image of the old bank building that was torn down appears on the wallpaper in the vestibule of the Fifth Third Bank branch in the building that replaced it.
The old bank building had drive-up banking in the back facing Halsted Street, over the site of which the new building was also built.
An Amazon Fresh grocery store had been planned for the building when it was completed, but never opened, published reports noted. Amazon announced in January that it was closing its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations, with some being converted into Whole Foods.
Whole Foods already operates two locations relatively close. One is adjacent to the Center on Halsted at 3640 N. Halsted St., the other at 3201 N. Ashland Ave. at the busy intersection with Lincoln and Belmont avenues.
Whole Foods currently operates a total of 10 locations within Chicago, and several more in the suburbs.
Crain's Chicago Business reported efforts are under way to lease the remaining spaces in the Lakeview Connection building.
A date has not been reported for the opening of the Lakeview Connection Whole Foods.
