Dom’s Kitchen & Market to make suburban debut with Oak Park store in former Marshall Field’s building

The Oak Park Village Board approved a sales tax rebate program to allow the owners of the vintage building at the northeast corner of Lake Street and Harlem Avenue to attract a grocery store that has a companion market.

The approval paves the way for Dom’s Kitchen & Market to move into the ground floor of the old Marshall Field’s building, at 1144 Lake Street. Dom’s is a recently-formed grocery story concept whose first store opened on North Halsted Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood in June 2021.

Now, beginning when Dom’s opens for business in Oak Park in late 2023, the village will rebate half of the sales taxes from food and liquor sales to the building owner, Nick Karris, for 20 years. Dom’s has negotiated a 30-year lease in the building and will occupy about 22,000 square feet on the first floor and basement levels, according to a village memo.

The old Marshall Field’s building’s ground floor has been empty since a Borders bookstore in that space closed in 2011. A memo from Oak Park Economic Development Corporation Executive Director John Lynch stated that the retrofitting and buildout of the building’s ground floor and basement will cost Dom’s and Karris a combined amount of approximately $13 million, which likely is $6 million to $7 million more than ground-up new construction and about $6.5 million to $8 million more than other locations that they are considering.

Dom’s is expected to generate about $350,000 a year in sales taxes, and the village would rebate about $175,000 each year to Karris, according to village officials.

In addition, Lynch wrote in the memo, the extended vacancy in the building and its age merit assistance, given its highly visible location.

“For over 11 years, the high-profile corner of Lake and Harlem has had its largest commercial space sitting vacant,” Lynch wrote. “The visual and psychological benefits of going from a seemingly empty building to a vibrant and thoughtfully designed food and beverage marketplace cannot be overstated. This reactivation stands to serve as an immediate and clear marker of our Downtown’s progress for all those who enter Oak Park via Lake Street from the west. In addition, this fresh concept will no doubt bring more shoppers and commercial activity to the Downtown district as a whole.”

Dom’s is led by Mariano’s founder Bob Mariano, Don Fitzgerald and Jay Owen, who is the great-grandson of Dominick DiMatteo, the founder of the former Dominick’s grocery store chain. Construction is taking place on a second location in Old Town, which is scheduled to open before the end of the year.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelancer.