New Lenox Pete's Fresh Market Completion Date Pushed Back (Yep, AGAIN)

NEW LENOX, IL — With progress on the New Lenox Pete's Fresh Market visibly stalled, New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann sought an update from the company late last month.

The store is still happening, but yes, it's still going to be a bit. He's just the messenger, Baldermann swears.

With a steel delivery expected this week, the company told Baldermann they'll be able to "push forward nonstop from this point forward." While the company previously touted a spring 2025 opening for the 60,000-sq. ft. store at 2375 E Lincoln Hwy., Baldermann said now they've pushed it back to spring 2026.

The construction standstill was due to reconfiguring of the store necessitated by changes in equipment, Baldermann said.

Pete's Fresh Market first announced its intention to open in New Lenox in 2017, Baldermann said. Started in the early 1970s as "a small, full-service produce stand on the south side of Chicago," the grocer chain remains a family-owned business with stores featuring fresh produce, full-service kitchens, bakery, deli, and in-house butchers. Pete's currently has 19 stores in the Chicagoland area with four listed as coming soon, the New Lenox location among them.

As construction picks back up in New Lenox, Orland Park shoppers are enjoying their new Pete's store, which just opened Jan. 28. That location took approximately five years to debut, but it had moved into an existing building that was formerly an Art Van Furniture store (and a Dominick's before that).

In Tinley Park, progress continues on a massive Pete's store there at 163rd and Harlem, with an opening tentatively set for spring 2025. That date has also been pushed back from earlier estimates. The company said in 2020 that it would be open by 2022. As that date came and went, the company cited issues with supply chains, utilities, and changes to Illinois law regarding refrigerants and electrical requirements. In spring 2024, the company told officials they expected to open by spring 2025. Pete's also has converted the shuttered Kmart retail store there into a warehouse. Chick-fil-A is also building in an outlot nearby.