PEORIA — A long-awaited grocery store intended to fill a food desert in South Peoria is about 90% completed, its proprietor, Chuck Brown, said Wednesday night.
Brown has been trying to bring a supermarket to 210 S. Western Avenue for the past five years but has hit an array of delays along the way the that have prevented the much-anticipated store from opening.
However, Brown said Wednesday at an event held by Peoria City Councilmember Denise Jackson that the store is 90% complete and is in the fifth month of an expected six-month construction and renovation process, putting it about "30 days out."
The only work left to do inside the store, Brown said, is cosmetic, decorations and such.
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"We're very excited about this. I've kept my motivation up, my morale, had ups and downs, but I'm tough," Brown said.
The supermarket, named CJ Harvest, would also include a "state of the art" restaurant, serving a menu of comfort foods called "Smokestack 309," Brown said Wednesday. The ultimate goal of the store, however, is to bring a grocery store to South Peoria, which has been without one since 2018 when a Kroger store closed on Harmon Highway.
"It doesn't take five years to open a supermarket ... it takes courage and belief that you can persevere long enough to get a supermarket open," Brown said. "It's been a journey and it's been tough, but it's been rewarding."
In the five years Brown has been trying to open the store he has encountered a series of hurdles, both personal and store-related, that have caused delays. In December 2021 his wife died of cancer, he said Wednesday, and then was followed in death by multiple siblings and his parents.
"On your journey, there are just things you don't anticipate," Brown said. "In the last five years I've lost her, my mom, my dad, three brothers, so life will you throw you some curves that you just don't anticipate. But the question is, do you have the courage to continue to believe?"
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In addition to personal losses, Brown was also arrested for a DUI in March. He lightly joked about the arrest Wednesday night, assuring the crowd in attendance at the Gateway Building that he was only drinking water, adding "now you know I'm not perfect."
Brown's grocery store has received millions of dollars in government funding, including roughly $1.66 million in funding from the state, which Gov. JB Pritzker came to Peoria to tout in October 2024. The store also received $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds from Peoria County and another $200,000 from the county in the form of a loan.
The government money also led to some delays, however. Brown said the first tranche of money from the state was not released until September 2025. Renovations on the building were finally able to start in February.
"I don't believe it's the government's responsibility to put me in business," Brown said. "But I do think when they make those types of efforts and make it possible for you, you better take advantage of it."
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Owner explains delays in opening South Peoria grocery store