The Aldi grocery store, scheduled to open at 215 Harlem Ave. in November, will likely experience delays, according to village officials.
The store’s opening has been pushed back to an unannounced date in 2024.
“We are planning to open a store in Forest Park by end-of-year,” said Laura Branneman, Aldi’s regional division vice president.
The postponement results from contractors in charge of Aldi’s construction discovering a basement underneath the building, which wasn’t on their plans, according to Steve Glinke, the director of Forest Park’s department of public health and safety.
“They’re under some construction delays, some unforeseen things during the construction process,” said Ryan Nero, commissioner of public health and safety, during a July 22 village council meeting.
Contractors met with Aldi in July to determine how to move forward, Glinke said. He added that it could take up to two months to wait for a new engineering design from Aldi and Aries Capital, a Chicago-based real estate and private equity firm that owns the property. The design will then be reviewed by Christopher B. Burke Engineering, the village’s engineering firm.
In addition to addressing the basement, contractors are fixing the building’s roof and ceiling, doing minor electrical upgrades and switching the property’s utilities. Workers are also adding a space to accommodate deliveries, redesigning the facade to match Aldi’s branding and installing refrigerators, freezers and cashier stations, according to Village Administrator Rachell Entler.
“The addition of Aldi will add a grocery store to the North side of town, giving residents of Forest Park, Oak Park and River Forest another affordable food retailer option,” Entler previously told the Review. “They have a value that has become something that families are wrapping their hands around. People want food stability and not to spend their whole paycheck on it.”
What will soon be a vital resource for the community has been a long time coming.
Bed, Bath & Beyond closed at 215 Harlem Ave. in March 2023. The building has been vacant since.
Though there’s no official ribbon cutting scheduled yet, when it is, villagers will be anxiously awaiting Aldi’s launch in Forest Park.
“We’ll welcome their opening when it comes,” Nero said.