A plan to turn a long-vacant building on Milwaukee Avenue into an "upscale" liquor store has neighbors worried the store's opening would create a nuisance in their Gladstone Park neighborhood. View Full Caption Pradeep Patel

GLADSTONE PARK — Plans to turn a long-vacant building on Milwaukee Avenue into an "upscale" liquor store that drew the ire of neighbors are dead, the owner said Friday.

Pradeep Patel, who needed a liquor license to open 4th Octave Wine and Spirits at 5636 N. Milwaukee Ave., said he dropped the plans after new projects drew his time and attention away from the Gladstone Park store.

"It was taking too long," Patel said. "I decided I didn't want to do business in a community that didn't want to do business with me."

The store became an issue in April's aldermanic runoff between Chicago Police Lt. John Garrido, a lawyer who advised neighbors on how to stop the plans for the store or restrict its operations, and Ald. John Arena (45th), who supported plans for the store and blasted the Gladstone Park Chamber of Commerce on social media for refusing to welcome Patel — who planned to spend $300,000 renovating the building and opening the store — to Gladstone Park.

Arena defeated Garrido to win a second term.

Heather Cherone says some neighbors wanted a coffee shop instead:

The store had been approved by city zoning officials, but its application for a liquor license was still under review by Liquor Commissioner Gregory Steadman.

Nearby residents said they feared the store opening would mean a return to the days when their neighborhood was plagued by noise, litter and crime caused by a rowdy bar and a nearby convenience store that sold liquor.

Joe DiCiaula, a Gladstone Park resident who opposed the plans for the store, said he was pleased it would not open.

"But more than that, I am glad that a group of residents who had a concern were heard by the city," DiCiaula said.

On a Gladstone Park Facebook page, many residents said they wanted to see a coffee shop like Portage Grounds open in the building.

"We would love a coffee shop there," DiCiaula said. "It is one thing we are missing."

Patel had agreed to incorporate a host of restrictions into his liquor license to operate the store, including a ban on the sale of half-pints of liquor and single-serving containers of beer, wine and malt liquor, and to limit the store's hours of operation, officials said.

Similar restrictions are in place at liquor stores in the 45th Ward and have reduced crime and complaints, officials said.

Patel had promised that the store would have been a good addition to the community and an example to other liquor stores.

The liquor store would have filled a long-vacant 1,600-square-foot building in the Gladstone Park Business District. Patel operates six liquor stores in Chicago, records show.

New liquor stores are banned from opening in the majority of the 45th Ward's business districts under a measure Arena said he authored to give residents a tool to block unwanted liquor stores and convenience stores from opening near their homes.

Arena had exempted the location of the proposed 4th Octave liquor store, which was working its way through the city's permitting process when the moratorium was imposed.

Owen Brugh, Arena's chief of staff, said he was not sure whether the moratorium would be expanded to prevent another liquor store from opening near Milwaukee and Marmora avenues.

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