Retail / Supermarkets

Retail Remodels

The Jenkins Group designed a shopping center façade renovation in Chicago Ridge, Illinois, for Brixmor Property Group at the Commons of Chicago Ridge. The work covered three existing retail buildings along Ridgeland Avenue. The firm began in late 2018 with concept renderings and a material board of fiber cement panel options, then narrowed the choices through several rounds of elevations for each building. The approved design gives the center a layered exterior of thin-brick veneer, fiber cement siding, exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS), prefinished metal wall panels and standing-seam metal awnings, with new metal coping at the parapets and replacement window film at the storefronts. Permit drawings were issued in May 2019, and bid documents followed at the end of that month.

The Jenkins Group prepared the renderings, permit and bid documents, and the paint, metal and masonry color selections for all three buildings. The firm then reviewed submittals and answered contractor questions while general contractor Midwest Construction Partners built the work in the summer of 2019. Existing conditions shaped many of the details. New parapet walls had to be tied back to the existing bracing, some openings called for removing masonry and cutting out steel lintels, and the field team reported a soffit about an inch out of level on one building and uninsulated wall framing on another. Both were resolved through requests for information. The approved drawings carry one palette across the three buildings, with sign raceways painted to suit the brick and the fiber cement and space left for future tenants.

Retail remodels are won at the curb, before anyone parks.