Romeoville Grocery Efforts Unsuccessful To Date, Village Looks To Future

ROMEOVILLE, IL — At its Wednesday meeting, the Romeoville Village Board heard an update about its grocery market analysis. The Village engaged with a consultant in early 2022 to do a grocer market analysis and grocer attraction strategy.

Romeoville residents have previously expressed a need for more grocery stores in the town, specifically on Route 53.

Community Development Director Josh Potter said the analysis focused on Weber Road and Route 53. The Village consulted with Mike Mallon, a real estate agent in the grocery industry with over 40 years of experience, for the analysis.

"The research that we did included foot and vehicle traffic analytics, customer characteristics, research demographics and geographic data," Mallon said.

Mallon said findings showed that both Weber Road and Route 53 could support additional grocery stores. Over 38 grocery stores were identified as being possible "good fits" for the community.

"We negotiated letters of intent, we also worked through potential Village incentives to aggressively try to bring a grocery store to the Village," Mallon said. "After an extensive process, I'm disappointed that our efforts were unsuccessful."

Grocers were concerned about competition, sister stores in the area and market conditions, Mallon said.

Romeoville does have some grocery shopping options, including a Jewel-Osco, ALDI and a Walmart, which are all located on Weber Road. Romeoville is also home to several small specialty grocers, including Mexican grocery stores Supermercado Jerez and Eli's Market, both on Independence Boulevard; and Abi's Market, an African, Caribbean and Hispanic market on Romeo Road. Nearby Bolingbrook has stores including Meijer, Tony's Fresh Market and Jewel-Osco.

However, Mallon said that with changes in the grocery sector and growth of residential in the Village, he is "hopeful" about revisiting the market in the next 18 to 24 months.

Mayor John Noak said findings showed a large-scale store would not be supported on Route 53, but a smaller-scale store may be. Weber Road could support a larger-scale store.

"We were very aggressive," Village Manager Dawn Caldwell said.

Noak said part of the problem is that there is a "very rapid evolution of the grocery industry," including consolidations, acquisitions and mergers, that creates hesitation and uncertainty.

"We're not stopping, this is just an update," Noak said.