City could attempt to take over vacant South Shore Dominick’s via eminent domain
“A South Shore storefront that has been vacant since December could be seized via eminent domain because the shopping center owner could not find a new tenant, even after unusual efforts from city officials to place a grocery store there.
The Chicago Tribune explained that the storefront gained certain notoriety because it’s the last of shuttered Dominick’s grocery stores in Chicago without a new purpose; most of the other spaces were taken up by Jewel-Osco, Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFM), or Mariano’s (NYSE: RNDY) grocery stores. Andrew Mooney, the city’s department of planning and development commissioner, said the city would move quickly to take over the property, but that it wants to return the store to private hands quickly, after finding a new tenant, the report said.
The current landlord, Cannon Commercial, told the Tribune it has been seeking a new tenant, but wants one that will pay about the same as Dominick’s had been paying. Dominick’s parent, Safeway (NYSE: SWY), owns the lease through May, Cannon told the Tribune.”
Chicago Business Journal 8 October 2014.