Hershey’s Chocolate Chicago store on Michigan Avenue will close sometime in January 2017, a spokesperson for the candy company confirmed Monday.
The location has been a part of the Magnificent Mile since 2005, Anna Lingeris, a Hershey Company spokesperson said.
“As we look to our future as a leader in experiential retail, we are focusing our efforts on larger scale footprints that allow for more experiential interactions between our consumers and our beloved and iconic brands,” Lingeris said. “Hershey’s Chocolate World Chicago will remain open throughout the holiday season and will close at a date to be determined in January 2017.”
Lingeris said the company did not have any plans for a new Chicago location but also wouldn’t rule out the possibility.
In 2014, Hershey Company opened a flagship store in Las Vegas, Lingeris said, covering over 13,000 sq. ft. The company also has a larger store in the works for New York’s Times Square scheduled to open in late 2017.
The candy store’s shuttering will add another empty storefront to the northern stretch of North Michigan Avenue, which saw nearly 197,000 square feet of real estate sitting vacant as of last July, or about 6 percent of all Michigan Avenue retail space between the Chicago River and Oak Street, the Chicago Tribune reports, citing real estate firm CBRE.
That doesn't include stores opening soon, like the Apple Store at 679 N. Michigan Ave., which Apple will leave for a new flagship along the Chicago River that is currently under construction, the Tribune reports.
Local
Loyola University Chicago told the newspaper the property is being marketed to prospective tenants.
