Business & Tech

Northwestern Thanked for Its Role in Trader Joe's Deal

Mayor acknowledges not thanking the school during the announcement last week.

Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl today apologized to for not acknowledging earlier the role the school played in negotiating .

“Northwestern President Schapiro is correct; Northwestern University did play an important role in bringing Trader Joe's to Evanston and should be thanked. I apologize for the omission and I am thanking Northwestern now,” Tisdahl said in a statement at 9 a.m.

Tisdahl was reacting to an article in The Daily Northwestern in which university President Morton Schapiro said he was "surprised" not to have been thanked during last week's announcement about the store.

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In the article, Shapiro explained that the university owned the alley just north of the new Trader Joe's spot and that without the school's help, the deal wouldn't have happened.

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Patch readers reacted joyously to the news that the popular grocery store would open at 1211 Chicago Ave. early next year. It's moving into the space formerly occupied by Blockbuster.

According to Evanston Now, the city and developer started working with Northwestern because it owns a house just north of the intended Trader Joe's site, which the developer wanted to incorporate in order to have more parking.

The home at 1229 Chicago was acquired by the university more than 90 years ago under a program that allowed homeowners to give the school their property in exchange for the promise of allowing their children to attend Northwestern for free, the article says.

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