A grocery store is finally coming back to 1639 N. Wells St. in Old Town, where the former Treasure Island Foods building has sat empty since the beloved chain shut down in 2018. Whole Foods Market has signed a lease at the address, 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins announced in a weekly newsletter.
The news, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, closes the book on a vacancy that has stretched for roughly eight years at the 44,000-square-foot building. Treasure Island opened its flagship store at that address in 1964 and operated there for 55 years before filing for bankruptcy and closing all of its locations in October 2018 — a chain so beloved that chef Julia Child once called it “America's most European supermarket.”
A Neighborhood Priority Finally Lands
Hopkins said restoring a full-service grocery store at the location had to be a priority for the neighborhood, and he described Whole Foods as an established operator with the capacity to serve the area long term. The alderman's announcement did not include a timeline, and Whole Foods has not determined an opening date for the Old Town store.
The site's redevelopment still has work remaining, according to the alderman's statement. Chicago developer Fern Hill bought the building for $14.8 million in 2019 after Treasure Island's liquidation, according to Chicago YIMBY, with plans to bring in a new grocer as part of a much larger overhaul of the block. That plan grew into a multi-parcel redevelopment spanning six parcels near North Avenue and LaSalle Drive, undertaken in collaboration with Moody Church and envisioning new residential units, parking structures, and retail space alongside the grocery anchor.
Grocery Gap Left Old Town Wanting
The Whole Foods signing arrives amid an acute local grocery shortage. Old Town lost another major food retailer in April 2024 when Dom's Kitchen & Market abruptly closed its store at 1233 N. Wells St., just blocks from the Treasure Island site, alongside sister chain Foxtrot Market after parent company Outfox Hospitality collapsed — a closure Hoodline previously reported left the neighborhood facing what Hopkins called a grocery vacuum. That Wells Street space has its own turbulent recent history: Dom's had only occupied it since 2022, after displacing natural grocer Plum Market, which was forced out following an unexpected lease termination that laid off 121 workers, according to WhatNow Chicago. Plum Market had operated there for nine years after opening in 2013.
Fern Hill's broader ambitions for the block have not come without friction. In April, a Cook County judge denied a preliminary injunction sought by neighborhood condo owners who were trying to halt the developer's controversial 36-story Old Town Canvas apartment tower near LaSalle Drive and North Avenue, a ruling Hoodline covered in Old Town Canvas Tower Fight that allowed pre-construction plans to proceed. Neighbors had argued the high-rise would increase traffic and alter the character of Old Town, and litigation over the density and scale of Fern Hill's plans has continued even as the grocery lease moves forward.
Part Of A Citywide Grocery Push
The Old Town lease is one piece of a larger expansion. Whole Foods also plans to open stores in Wicker Park and Lakeview, according to the alderman. In Wicker Park, the Chicago Department of Buildings issued renovation permits in April for Whole Foods to convert the ground floor of the landmark 1920s Home Bank and Trust Company building into a full-service grocery store, a project Hoodline detailed after the space had sat vacant since CVS closed there in March 2023. In Lakeview, Whole Foods secured a site at 827 West Belmont Avenue in a former bank building that had previously been slated for an Amazon Fresh store, as Amazon shifted away from its standalone Amazon Fresh retail push in favor of expanding Whole Foods, according to The Real Deal.
The flurry of activity reflects a broader trend across the grocery industry. Operators nationwide are planning nearly 21 million square feet of new store space in 2026, driven by sustained at-home dining habits and the legal collapse of the proposed $24.6 billion Kroger-Albertsons merger, which had previously frozen urban site acquisitions, per the same Real Deal report. Whole Foods has separately been rolling out a smaller-format “Daily Shop” concept, ranging from 7,000 to 14,000 square feet, including a Chicago location signed in Wicker Park, according to Grocery Dive.
For now, Old Town residents have a lease but no move-in date. Hopkins framed the Whole Foods deal as a win for a neighborhood that has cycled through grocers in rapid succession over the past several years, even as the larger redevelopment around the Treasure Island building continues to take shape — and continues to draw scrutiny from neighbors watching Fern Hill's broader plans unfold.
