Logan Square Trader Joe’s Store Could Open Next Year

LOGAN SQUARE — The highly anticipated Trader Joe’s store coming to Logan Square is looking to open next year.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) said this week the store is eyeing an early 2027 opening, and renovation permits for the building are in the works.

Earlier this year, it was announced that the California-based grocery chain would take over part of the building at 2053 N. Milwaukee Ave., formerly a CVS. The building has been vacant since 2017 and has been considered for multiple failed grocery store proposals.

An ordinance for the company to subdivide the commercial space passed in September, per the alderman and the city clerk’s website. The legislation allows for the building to be adapted to a “strip center” with two retail spaces; it’s an amendment to a city-led plan approved in 2024 that identified the building and others along an 11-mile stretch of Milwaukee Avenue as ripe for redevelopment.

An additional 12,000 square feet of retail space on the property is being marketed to another retail tenant, according to a marketing flier distributed by Axis Realty and a sign posted on the building in February that has since been taken down. In 2021, independently owned grocery store Farmer’s Best Market was slated to take over the building, but the deal fell through.

A Trader Joe’s spokesperson on Tuesday did not have opening timeline details to share for the store but confirmed it is still happening. The company typically adds stores opening soon to its website three to six months before they open. Hiring will not start before a store appears on the list, the spokesperson said.

The Logan Square store is not yet on the website, though two other Chicago stores are. The company confirmed this week the Uptown and North Park stores are in the works and the Uptown spot will open next year.

A sign announcing that Trader Joe’s is planning to open at 2053 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Logan Square seen Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: Sabrina Castle/Block Club Chicago

The Logan Square building was sold in 2024 for $10.5 million to James “Jimmy” Dremonas, owner of the Pete’s Fresh Market grocery chain, according to property records. Rumors circulated that Dremonas wanted to open a Pete’s in that location, but that never materialized. Property records show Dremonas still owns the property, but La Spata said Dremonas is leasing the storefront to Trader Joe’s.

Aside from his grocery business, Dremonas owns Chicago-based JD Commercial Real Estate Inc. , a developer and real estate advisor, and he has bought other properties in Chicago, Crain’s reported .

A real estate agent representing Dremonas didn’t reply to a request for comment about whether other tenants have been secured yet.

Unlike several other Trader Joe’s in Chicago, there will be substantial parking at the Logan Square location. Plans included in the marketing flier show more than 130 parking spots.

“We’re going for the record of largest Trader Joe’s parking lot in the city,” La Spata said in February, laughing.

Two permit applications filed for the exterior renovation filed this spring and summer have yet to be approved but have received multiple city agency reviews, according to the city database. Exterior work includes facade remodeling, roof work, upgrading the parking lot, barrier curbs, adding a pedestrian connection to Milwaukee Avenue and installing a new truck delivery area, according to permits.

An application for an interior renovation work has yet to be filed and there are no pending liquor or packaged goods licenses on file yet for the location, a spokesperson for the city’s Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Department said.

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Logan Square neighbors have begged for a Trader Joe’s to come to the area for years , and La Spata has heard their requests constantly since becoming alderman, he has said. The popular chain is in expansion mode in Chicago and across the country.

After the official announcement was made earlier this year, locally famous street artist Derek Erdman pulled a prank on some neighbors in July when he added a fake sign on the building for an Erewhon store coming to the spot, sparking a flurry of reactions from neighbors — and even prompting the alderman to publicly correct the record. Erewhon is an upscale grocery store chain, also based in California, that made headlines for its $20 smoothie named after Hailey Bieber .

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