



by BRIAN NADIG

A Seafood City Supermarket will be opening in the Mayfair community at 5033 N. Elston Ave., where the Kmart store is closing, according to Alderman Margaret Laurino (39th).

The grocery store chain specializes in Filipino and other Asian grocery products and has more than 20 stores in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Washington, and the store on Elston will be its first in the Midwest. Their stores also include “American products that one would normally find in any supermarket,” according to the company’s Web site.

“Sears Holding Company, the parent company for Kmart, informed their employees this morning that the store will close. The closing date is not yet finalized.

“A California-based grocery store, Seafood City, is taking over the lease and planning to invest over $1 million to completely remodel the building,” Laurino said in a June 3 statement.

Laurino said that she will hold a community meeting on the project once more details are available. There reportedly are plans to add larger windows to the building’s façade and to subdivide the building to allow for additional tenants in what will be called “Seafood City Elston Plaza.”

The site’s parking lot can be accessed from Keating Avenue or Elston Avenue. Laurino’s father, then-alderman Anthony Laurino, held several meetings with residents to discuss their traffic concerns before the Kmart was constructed about 25 years ago.



