By Jennifer Lyng
Special to Inside
The Market Place on Clark, 4610 N. Clark St., which has been "closed for renovations" since this summer, will not be reopening. The owner has gone out of business. In fact, on Nov. 11 Badger Auctioneers held an auction at the site to liquidate the assets and inventory. Gone are all the deli and bakery equipment, the refrigerators and walk-in freezers for meat and produce, the shelves, the compressors and condensers, the odds and ends. Only a large vacant space stands where once there were numerous shoppers, many without the transportation to travel farther than walking distance to a store, loading up on groceries for the week.
Ald. Gene Schulter (47th), in whose ward the store is located, is making a push to keep a grocery store in that location. The building's owner, Paul Butera, is attempting to secure a new grocery tenant, but it has been difficult to attract a food chain after three grocery outlets have failed at this location in the last five years. Prior tenants were Shop 'n Save and his own Butera Market.
If Butera is unable to find a grocer to operate a food store at this site, the rumored new tenant would be Staples, an office supply store. This would be the first Staples in the Chicagoland area. Staples, Inc., the largest office superstore chain, has plans to expand into the Chicago market.
Paul Butera also owns the other buildings at the northwest corner of Clark St. and Wilson Ave., which currently contain a Walgreens and a Blockbuster Video store.
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