Wheaton’s best chance for a downtown grocery store might be the former Hubble Middle School site – not the shuttered Jewel Food Store nearby.
Members of a steering committee working with real estate consultants to determine the best use for the old Hubble property are reviewing four options for the 22-acre parcel at Main Street and Roosevelt Road.
One calls for a mixed-use development with specialty grocery store – despite the fact a former Jewel building is for sale immediately to the north along Willow Avenue.
That doesn’t surprise Councilman John Prendiville, who says it’s “highly unlikely” the boarded up structure will be a grocery store again.
For starters, Jewel-Osco wants potential buyers to pay $4 million for the 19,500-square-foot building. Officials say they doubt the grocers who have expressed interest could even afford the asking price.
Even if they could, Prendiville said: “It is extremely unlikely that Jewel would sell to competitor. And Jewel has expressed no interest at all in redeveloping that property as a grocery store.”
Prendiville said that’s why the city is looking for other downtown locations, like the Hubble site, where a replacement grocer could locate.
“We’re listening to the requests of the community,” he said, adding that residents want a downtown grocery store.
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