Whole Foods to Open in Old Town's Former Treasure Island Space on Wells Street

Old Town is getting a grocery store again. Whole Foods Market has signed a lease to open in the former Treasure Island space at 1639 N. Wells St., Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) announced Monday, ending an eight-year stretch in which the address sat empty after Treasure Island's 2018 closure.

Whole Foods and the building's owner will now move into designing, permitting and construction planning for the store, according to Hopkins' office. No opening date has been set.

"From the beginning of the redevelopment review, I was clear that restoring a full-service grocery store to this location had to be a priority," Hopkins said in a statement. "Whole Foods Market is an established operator with the capacity to serve the neighborhood for the long term."

Treasure Island, a neighborhood grocer known for its imported goods and European-style aisles, operated on Wells Street for decades before it shut down in 2018 along with the rest of the chain. The Wells Street storefront has stayed vacant since, leaving Old Town residents without a full-service grocery option in the immediate area.

The site has taken several turns since Treasure Island's closure. In December 2023, developer Fern Hill signed a letter of intent with Commissary Market, a locally owned grocer based in the Gold Coast, to relocate into the Treasure Island space after closing its longtime location. Those plans never materialized.

Fern Hill was separately pursuing a larger, contested redevelopment plan near North Avenue and LaSalle Drive. As that project sought city approval, Hopkins made a grocery tenant for the former Treasure Island space a condition of his support, according to his office. The redevelopment plan cleared a major hurdle in February 2025.

Ray Clark, president of the Old Town Triangle Association, said in a statement that neighborhood residents had consistently pushed for a full-service grocery store to return to the site.

The Old Town lease is the third Whole Foods location announced for Chicago in recent months. In April, the company revealed plans for a store at 827 W. Belmont Ave. in Lakeview, inside the Belmont Connection building, and another at 1200 N. Ashland Ave. in Wicker Park, in a space formerly occupied by a CVS.

Hopkins' office said additional details about the Old Town store, including a construction timeline and expected opening date, will be released as plans move forward. For now, the building at 1639 N. Wells St. remains vacant, awaiting permits before work can begin.