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Shoppes on Bower Hill Finally Coming Down

It's been a slow and painful death for the shopping center that had everything.

We all knew this day was coming. For more than seven years, the Shoppes on Bower Hill were hanging on by a thread, waiting for Judgment Day by the corporate suits at Walgreen’s and municipal zoning workers to give the goahead. The only thing keeping the shopping center on life-support, it seemed, was the last holdout of Chicago’s Pizzeria, which kept its lease active until it finally closed for good in March. It also appeared to become a cheap and convenient parking lot for patients at nearby St. Clair Hospital. After years of waiting and wondering, we finally know when something is going into that prime piece of real estate at North Wren and Bower Hill. Scott Township officials said a new Walgreen’s most likely will be built there by late…

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Chicago’s Pizzeria Shuts its Doors

Walgreens is set to open a store at the site of the defunct Shoppes on Bower Hill.

A local pizza joint that served up slices for 21 years has closed its doors, making room for a major pharmacy chain and bringing an unceremonious end to The Shoppes on Bower Hill. Chicago’s Pizzeria & Ice Creamery, located on the southern end of a now vacant strip mall at the corner of Bower Hill Road and North Wren Drive, turned off its lights for the final time earlier this month. A sign was posted in the window, thanking customers for 21 great years, and incoming phone calls are now routed to nearby Folino Brothers’ Pizza on Vanadium Road. The Shoppes on Bower Hill, a business hub that once housed a jewelry store, bank, coffee shop, Chinese restaurant, greeting card boutique and more is now mostly vacant, boarded up and masked by wax on…

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