The co-op announced in January that it was considering the North Side location at 2817 N. Sherman Ave. after Pierce’s announced it wouldn’t renew its 10-year lease. Pierce’s opened in 2006, three years after Kohl’s closed a nearby 50,000-square-foot grocery store.

Pierce’s closed the first week of May, which was about three weeks earlier than initially expected. Meanwhile, officials at the co-op realized that instead of needing two to four weeks to remodel it would instead take four to eight weeks to complete the $2.7 million project.

A coalition of business and community groups worked to provide a shuttle bus to other grocery stores outside of the neighborhood and to have some items sold at the Northside Farmers’ Market.

The opening of the co-op has put everything under one roof in the heart of the neighborhood.

Jan Smith has been a co-op member since 1975 and lives in the Cherokee neighborhood a few minutes to the north. She no longer needs to drive 20 minutes to Middleton or Williamson Street to shop at the co-op.

“This is a dream come true,” said Smith, whose family owned a grocery store in Highland when she was growing up. “For me, going to Willy Street (co-op) and shopping as part of a community is just intrinsic nature.”