Alex Najem has filled out the ground-floor retail space at his latest Fulton Market office project, 919 West Fulton Street, signing upscale grocer and eatery Dom’s Kitchen & Market to a 25,000-square-foot lease.
The 500,000-square-foot, $320 million project is moving toward breaking ground, having secured an anchor office tenant in private equity firm Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, which is leasing about 150,000 square feet in the building.
With the Dom’s deal, Najem says the project’s retail space is fully leased. Gibsons Restaurant Group agreed to take about 15,000 square feet earlier this year, the developer said.
Dom’s, which opened its first location last year at 2730 North Halsted Street in Lincoln Park, plans to partner with restaurant operator Hogsalt Hospitality’s Brendan Sodikoff to include a large cafe in the Fulton Market store, Najem said.
A Dom’s representative declined to comment but said the deal isn’t finalized. Sodikoff couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The 919 West Fulton location would be the company’s third. It reportedly struck a deal to open a second store in Uptown next month, at 1233 North Wells Street, where Dom’s would replace independent grocer Plum Market. That store will be 50 percent larger than its Lincoln Park one.
Dom’s also closed in on a suburban debut earlier this week, inking a 30-year lease for 22,000 square feet in a former Marshall Field’s building in Oak Park. It received a sales tax rebate package from the suburb to make that move, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Reeling in a grocer is a win for Fulton Market. The West Loop development pipeline is stuffed with apartment proposals — some 9,000 units are in various phases of planning in the larger West Loop area. They will surround an office district that has sprouted with new buildings from developers Sterling Bay, Jeff Shapack and Najem’s Fulton Street Companies, among others.
Dom’s is also the latest retail tenant to move from an established North Side neighborhood into Fulton Market. Gibson’s grew its brand on the Gold Coast, but the steakhouse operator was compelled to snag a Fulton Market spot, while the jazz club BackRoom, which shuttered on the Gold Coast eight years ago is now staging its revival in Fulton Market.
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