Business & Tech

Pete's Planning Similar Sized Store as Mariano's on 143rd Street

Pete's Fresh Market is still planning to build on 143rd Street between Marquette Bank and John Humphrey Drive, provided Orland Park officials sign off on the next submitted plan.

Pete’s Fresh Market is still planning to build a 72,000 square-foot grocery store at the former site of Terry’s Lincoln, even though plans were announced to build a similar-sized Mariano’s Fresh Market just north of that area.

Pete’s is scheduled to submit the latest iteration of their plans for an Orland Park location around mid-December, according to company representative Eugene Grzynkowicz. Before the company can move forward, they will have to convince the village to approve a special use permit to do so, because the area falls within the downtown zoning district, said Orland Park Development Services Director Karie Friling.

“The objective there was never to have big box stores, which to us is anything over 50,000 square feet,” Friling said. “We’d have to really ask if not one but two stores over that size are in the long term vision for our downtown.”

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Grzynkowicz announced Pete’s intentions to still open in Orland Park at a November plan commission meeting, where the village publicly presented plans for a 73,000 square-foot Mariano’s in Orland Crossing and rental housing.

Pete’s Fresh Market bought the Terry’s location in 2012 and demolished the property earlier this year. The company also purchased additional land closer to Marquette Bank, after Orland Park requested they add more green space to their plan, Grzynkowicz said.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“We wouldn’t have spent the time to work on the property as we had, and purchase more land, if we weren’t serious about building there,” Grzynkowicz said.

Working with Marquette Bank about shared entrances and exits delayed their plans, as did detention issues and internal decisions to make other changes, Grzynkowicz said.

Pete’s submitted three sets of drawings to the village, the most recent being revised elevations and site plan on Oct. 21. However, required petition items were still missing, according to the village, though they did not specify which.

Friling said she couldn’t discuss private conversations held when Mariano’s first sent their plans to the village, as far as whether Pete’s was taken into consideration at that time.

“We weren’t sure about Pete’s moving forward,” she said. “The (Terry’s) land wasn’t the first they purchased in Orland Park. They also bought the old Dominick’s, and that became Art Van Furniture.”

Grzynkowicz said he was called in early November by the village, and was told then about the Mariano’s plan.

“The biggest thing for us is if we’d known from the beginning that they’d be across the street, it would have definitely factored in where we would plan to build,” Grzynkowicz said. “We have too much invested into that location to consider elsewhere.”

Read more about Orland Park’s Mariano’s development plan and Pete's plans.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here