CHICAGO — Magellan Development Group has broken ground for a new retail center within Chicago's Lakeshore East master-planned community. Village Market Center will be a three-story, 105,000-square-foot shopping center located at the southwest corner of the 28-acre development, just northeast of Millennium Park. Three tenants have already signed on at the project, including Roundy's Supermarket, which will occupy a 55,000-square-foot, bi-level anchor space. Other tenants include restaurant III Forks, which is leasing 12,941 square feet, and a breakfast restaurant that is leasing 2,128 square feet. McHugh Construction Co. is the general contractor, and construction is expected to take 1 year to complete.
Sustainability will be a priority at Village Market Center, which is being designed to LEED-Silver specifications. The building will have a green roof as well as parking under the building rather than in surface lots. Spaces have been set aside for bicycles as well as fuel-efficient and alternative energy vehicles. The building will also contain high-efficiency windows and low-flow plumbing fixtures.
"Roundy's will not only be our first tenant in the Village Market, but it will be the first large-scale grocery store in the emerging New East Side neighborhood," said Brian Gordon, vice president of development for Magellan, in a statement. "This will be an enormous convenience for people making their home at Lakeshore East and for our residential and commercial neighbors as well. We view this as a significant step forward in realizing our vision of Lakeshore East as a village within a city."
At full build-out, Lakeshore East will contain up to 4,950 residences, 2.2 million square feet of commercial space, 1,500 hotel rooms, 770,000 square feet of retail space, a proposed elementary school and a 6-acre public park. In addition to Village Market Center, construction currently under way at the development includes the 82-story Aqua tower as well as the first phase of The Parkhomes at Lakeshore East.
— Coleman Wood
