At least part of now-empty anchor space at Wilmette’s venerable Plaza del Lago shopping center could become a CVS retail store if the Sheridan Road shopping center wins a zoning request to allow drive-through facilities at the site.
A leasing representative for Plaza del Lago did not return a Wilmette Life call for confirmation by Tuesday afteroon.
However, Wilmette village trustees were expected Tuesday evening to refer to committee a zoning request from the plaza’s owners, one whose approval would allow them to sign a lease with CVS for the first floor of the vacant former Crate and Barrel store.
Crate and Barrel, which had leased 20,000 square feet of the shopping center’s roughly 100,000 square feet, closed the store earlier this year.
Plaza del Lago has asked for zoning code amendments that would allow a drive-through window as a special use in the center’s PCD-2 planning commercial development zoning district.
CVS officials will not sign a lease for the Crate and Barrel space unless they can operate a drive-through window for the store’s pharmacy operations, Plaza attorney G. Gale Roberson Jr. told village officials in a Sept. 2 letter.
John Adler, Wilmette’s community development director, has recommended that the Village Board appoint its land use committee to sit as a special zoning committee to review the zoning amendment.
Plaza del Lago opened at 1515 Sheridan Road in 1928; it is one of the oldest shopping centers in the United States.
In June, village trustees turned down a request by Plaza owners to allow the center’s Fanny May candy store to have a lighted sign on its south face.
