Trader Joe's Coming to West Ridge Chicago

Trader Joe’s has signed a lease at the Lincoln Village Shopping Center, 6199 N. Lincoln Ave., and is planning to open a new store in West Ridge, Ald. Debra Silverstein announced Friday.

Silverstein, who represents the 50th Ward, said the grocer has also applied for building permits at the site. No opening date has been set. “It will take some time before the store is ready to open,” Silverstein told constituents in an email, adding that while the lease is signed and permitting is underway, the project is still in early stages and “things could change.”

West Ridge residents have wanted a Trader Joe’s for years. Back in 2020, neighbors and business development officials petitioned the chain to move into the former Baker’s Square location at Western and Touhy avenues. That spot has since been redeveloped into a strip mall anchored by a Starbucks.

Silverstein didn’t downplay what the announcement means to the Far North Side neighborhood.

“This has been a top priority of mine for years, and I know how much our community has been asking for a Trader Joe’s,” she said in her note to constituents. “Your voices, feedback, and persistence helped make this happen.”

A Trader Joe’s spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The West Ridge location would be the fourth Chicago Trader Joe’s announced since October, a stretch that reflects aggressive growth by the California-based chain both in the city and nationally. Block Club Chicago first reported the West Ridge plans after Silverstein’s announcement.

Three locations. Three neighborhoods.

Last month, the city issued permits for a Trader Joe’s at 804 W. Montrose Ave. in Uptown. In February, the chain confirmed plans to open in Logan Square inside a former CVS on Milwaukee Avenue. A fourth store is planned for 170 N. May St. in Fulton Market, inside a 25-story apartment tower currently in development.

Not every deal has held together. A Jefferson Park location was announced in early 2025 but collapsed late last year after the two sides couldn’t agree on a property purchase. Plans to bring the store to Clark Street in Andersonville fell through in 2023. Chicago has proven both a target and a graveyard for Trader Joe’s expansion attempts, with neighborhood enthusiasm rarely enough to close a deal on its own.

Trader Joe’s currently operates six Chicago stores: River North, the Near North Side, Lincoln Park, North Center, the South Loop, and Hyde Park. The chain has recently announced new locations across the country, including one in west suburban Oswego, as it pushes into new markets and denser urban corridors simultaneously.

That means West Ridge, if everything holds, would bring the city’s total to seven. The neighborhood sits in the far northwest corner of Chicago, a dense, diverse area home to a large number of South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants and a robust independent retail corridor along Devon Avenue. It’s a part of the city that national chains have historically passed over, making a Trader Joe’s commitment there a meaningful signal, if it sticks.

The Lincoln Village Shopping Center has carried vacancies before. It’s a sprawling 1950s-era strip mall that’s cycled through tenants over the decades, and the site Trader Joe’s is targeting has the square footage the grocer typically requires for its compact, high-volume store format. According to the City of Chicago’s building permit portal, the permit application is part of the public record but does not guarantee project completion.

Neighbors who remember the 2020 petition drive, the one that ultimately went nowhere when the Western and Touhy site was snapped up for a strip mall, will likely be cautious. Silverstein’s own language built in a hedge.

Still, a signed lease puts this further along than past efforts.

The broader Trader Joe’s expansion push comes as the grocer has faced criticism from some consumer advocates over price transparency practices and supply chain disclosures, though none of that has visibly slowed its growth. The chain’s Chicago locations consistently rank among the busiest in the Midwest.

For West Ridge, the question now is whether the permit process moves smoothly and construction begins before another deal falls through. Silverstein said she’d keep residents updated as the project progresses.