Business & Tech

Wilmette Residents, Will You Be Shopping at Skokie's Walmart?

The marketplace south of Wilmette's borders will be anchored by a Walmart Supercenter, which is expected to hire some 300 employees.

The construction site for Touhy Marketplace is massive. It’s 15 acres. That’s 653,400 square feet, or approximately 11 football fields, end zone to end zone.

Eleven.

Anchoring the site at 3600 W. Touhy Ave., Skokie, will be a Walmart Supercenter, 150,000 square feet dedicated to selling produce, clothing, electronics, bed sheets, tools – you name it, they’ll probably have it.

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All in all, there will be 195,000 square feet of retail space and plenty of parking. Construction is set to be complete within “12 months,” or spring of 2014.

Tell us: Will you be shopping at the new Walmart when it opens?

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Replacing a vacant industrial area

On Wednesday, large yellow construction trucks were laying the groundwork for Touhy Marketplace. It was a hot day, and cookies, lemonade and flyers were left underneath a tent for attendees involved in making the development a reality.

There were several representatives from Walmart, two trustees, village officials, developers, and bankers, among others, at the “groundbreaking ceremony” near the intersection of Touhy and St. Louis avenues.

Peter Eisenberg of Clark Street Development, the group that’s spearheading the project, said nothing would have been possible without the efforts of village officials, such as Economic Development Coordinator Tom Thompson and former Corporate Counsel Pat Hanley, among others.

“This day has been a long time coming,” Eisenberg said to an audience of about 30. “This project will bring jobs, goods and services as well as revenue to the community.”

Touhy Marketplace will now replace what was once a vacant industrial area.

Walmart hopes to draw customers beyond Skokie

Kaitlin Wolf, Director of Operations for Walmart in Northern Illinois, said the Walmart Supercenter will be brightly lit and feature the most updated design.

“We will be hiring a little over 300 employees,” Wolf said.

The store will be located just outside of Chicago, which Walmart officials agreed would be beneficial for drawing customers beyond Skokie. The retail giant alone is said to generate approximately $1.1 million in sales tax revenue to the village, much of which will likely come from non-Skokie residents.

$8.1 million in sales tax revenue was generated from Old Orchard Mall from 2008 to 2009, or 40 percent of all sales tax revenue generated in the village. Further, about three-fourths of accounted sales at Old Orchard Mall are from non-Skokie residents.

What will be included in Touhy Marketplace

For starters, there will be plenty of parking, 17,000 square feet of small shops such as cell phone stores and fast food restaurants and a PNC bank with a four-lane drive thru. There's also two other spaces, however, occupants have yet to be named (see image above). 

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