Mariano's Development Gets Closer To Realization

The Skokie village board took several steps Monday to bring a Mariano's Fresh Market, and three adjacent buildings, closer to breaking ground at Touhy and McCormick Avenues.

At its regular meeting, the board approved several measures for the proposed Mariano's site, including rezoning the site from an industrial use to a commercial use, okaying the subdivision and allowing variations to the number and size of signs. 

John McLinden of Centrum Properties, developer of the site, said Mariano's would like to start demolition (of the current vacant one-story industrial building) soon, and to start construction within 60 to 90 days.

The public got to see several images of the site design.

It will contain four buildings, with the 73,000 square foot Mariano's occupying the western portion of the site, a bank to the east of it along Touhy, a already-leased Longhorn steakhouse nestled in the corner where Touhy and McCormick meet, and a multi-tenant building, with a potential drive-through window for a coffee provider or fast food tenant, north of that along McCormick (see photo).

McLinden said Mariano's designed the site, and is planning the store, especially for the Skokie area.

"We tailor our stores to the neighborhood. No two stores are alike," said Max Dickman, real estate development manager of Roundy's, the parent company of Mariano's. 

Peter Peyer, Skokie's director of community development, and Paul Luke, chairperson of the Plan Commission, introduced McLinden. The Plan Commission had worked extensively on going over the site design with Mariano's architects and executives. 

The spaces allotted for the bank and the multi-tenant use have not been leased yet, though McLinden said Centrum has interested parties. There are 512 parking spaces, generally on the interior of the site, with the four buildings on the periphery.

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