Business Comings & Goings: Beverly Bank Closes Deal on Village Property in Oak Lawn

Beverly Bank & Trust closed a deal on Jan. 7 to buy a parcel of land owned by Oak Lawn on 95^th Street between Raymond Avenue and 53^rd Avenue for $1.8 million.

Beverly Bank, which is part of the Wintrust financial group, will build a new bank at the site that will include space for a senior community center.

“We are planning a spring groundbreaking and anticipate opening in the fourth quarter,” said Mike Johnstone, CEO of Beverly Bank & Trust. Johnstone said a temporary facility will be erected on the site prior to the permanent structure being completed.

“We still have to go through the planning process with the village,” Johnstone said. “There are lots of moving pieces with a bank.”

Johnstone said the new building would be from 20,000 to 24,000 square feet.

“It will be modeled on our facility at 103^rd Street and Western Avenue,” he said.

Village officials said the project is expected to cost about $6 million and would create about 20 new jobs.

Tria Architecture Inc. of Burr Ridge is handling the design.

Johnstone said no name has been chosen but it will reflect the Oak Lawn community. Village officials called the new facility "Oak Lawn Bank & Trust."

“We are all about the community,” Johnstone said. “We think the community will identify with us.”

The vote early last year to approve the sale was close, with trustees Alex Olejniczak (2nd), Tom Duhig (4th) and Tom Phelan (6th) voting against it.

Mayor Dave Heilmann voted in favor of the sale to break the tie, as well as the motion to table it.

Wonder bread to return

Wonder bread and other Hostess bread brands may be returning to local store shelves as soon as this spring.

The company announced last week that it sold its six bread brands to Georgia-based Flower Foods as part of a $390 million deal that also includes the bread bakery in Hodgkins.

Flower Foods was selected as the “stalking horse” bidder for the bread brands, which means higher competing bids can still be made and the final deal must be approved in bankruptcy court.

Flower Foods made two separate bids for the Hostess breads: a $360 million bid for Wonder, Nature’s Pride, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita, along with 20 bakeries and 38 depots. Another $30 million bid was made for Beefsteak.

Most of those brands were among the products turned out by more than 300 workers at the bakery at 7225 Santa Fe Dr. in Hodgkins.

Flower Foods is best known for its Tastykakes snack cake but also produces Nature’s Own and Cobblestone Mill breads.

The company, which is well established in the east, south and southwest, is ready to stake a claim in the Midwest through its acquisition.

"This agreement is consistent with Flowers Foods' long-term growth objectives to reach significantly more of the U.S. population with its fresh breads, buns and rolls," said Flowers CEO George Deese in a news release. "We believe these assets would enhance our ability, over time, to provide more U.S. consumers with quality baked foods at a good value through existing and new retail and foodservice customers," he said.

Supervalu to sell Jewel-Osco chain 

Minnesota-based Supervalu announced last week that it would sell five of its brands, including Jewel-Osco, to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management in a deal valued at $3.3 billion.

Supervalu acquired Jewel-Osco in 2006 as part of a larger deal for the Albertsons chain.

The deal is expected to close in the spring.

Also included in the deal are Albertsons, Acme, Shaw’s and Star Market stores.

Supervalu would retain the rest of it brands including the Save-a-Lot discount stores, which are located locally on the South Side of Chicago and in Midlothian.

Officially, AB Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of Cerberus, would buy Jewel and the other stores from Supervalu for $100 million in cash and assumption of about $3.2 billion in debt.

Jewel-Osco, which is still the dominant player in Chicago’s supermarket scene despite losing market share to invaders such as Whole Foods and Roundy’s and smaller chains such as Pete’s Fresh Market and Fairplay Foods as well as increased food competition from Walmart and Target, operates 180 stores, most in the Chicago marketplace.

Speculation since the sale has centered on how long Cerberus will hold onto the stores. In a similar deal in 2006, Cerberus quickly resold 400 of 650 stores it acquired.

The most frequently mentioned bidder for Jewel-Osco, if Cerberus resells the chain, is Kroger, which already operates 19 of its Food For Less discount stores in the Chicago area.

Kroger abandoned the Chicago area decades ago when it closed local stores or sold locations to other supermarket companies.

Sanford-Brown closing Southland campus

Career Education Corp. is closing all three of its Chicago-area Sanford-Brown College campuses in Tinley Park, Hillside and Skokie.

The Tinley campus will be the first one to close in January 2014.

The company is closing 23 campuses as part of a massive restructuring that includes 900 job cuts.

The campuses have stopped accepting new students and will continue to operate until current students finish their degrees.

Marquette Bank donates to families

held its sixth annual Adopt-a-Family Program where bank employees collect Christmas gifts and distribute them to families in need. This year, Marquette Bank teamed up with 10 local organizations and fulfilled holiday wish lists for over 100 children and adults.

“The holiday season can be a financial strain for some families, especially in today’s economic environment,” Betty Kosky-Harn, Executive Vice President, said. “We’re committed to our local neighborhoods and this program is just one of the many ways we give back to our communities.”

Marquette Bank employees helped raise money to purchase gifts for the Adopt-a-Family Program through an employee-run garage sale and by participating in bankwide Jeans Days, where employees could make a $5 donation to wear jeans to work. Marquette Bank also collected more than 135 toys from business customers through its third annual Neighborhood Toy Drive. The toys were used to help fill the holiday wish lists and the rest were donated to the Toy Box Connection, a local non-profit organization that collects and distributes toys to local children in need.

Marquette Bank would like to thank the following local organizations for their help in identifying local families in need and distributing the Adopt-a-Family Program gifts: Catholic Charities, Girls of Grace in Evergreen Park, Mother Jones Food Pantry in Chicago, Nativity BVM in Chicago, New Pisgah Day Care in Chicago, St. Richard School in Chicago, Together We Cope in Tinley Park and Worth Township.

If you see a new business in town or wonder what happened to an old favorite, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com.

You can also catch up on Comings & Goings in other parts of the Southland at www.southlandbusinessnews.blogspot.com and www.southlandsavvy.com.