5-Apr-14 – (Above) All that remains of a convenience store that served Marina City for 12 years. Marina Towering Corporation, doing business as Marina Food & Liquor, signed a lease in September 2001 for this space on the concourse level.

What the store lacked in competitive prices, it more than made up for in convenience and personal service from Alex Espinoza, who ran the store almost single handedly for owner Pankaj Patel.

At one time, the store was stocked by what is now Central Grocers, a retail co-op owned by the Illinois supermarkets that it supplies.

The store struggled financially for months and then called it quits in March. Its last day was March 24, 2014.

Since then, the space has been shown to prospective tenants and not all of them are grocery stores. There have been inquiries, including one from a MillerCoors distributor. Hotel Chicago briefly considered doing something with the space.

But as of April 2, when these images were captured, the space was still available. Kim McGuire, Senior Vice President, CBRE, is showing the property and he can be reached at 312-935-1974 or by email at kim.mcguire@cbre.com.

(Above) The view from behind the counter. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

Inside one of three coolers.

View from near one of the other coolers.

A room at the back of the store. Directly ahead, past the cooling equipment, is the cooler in the northeast corner.

In all fairness, this food service area had not been utilized for many years.

What the front of the store looked like on December 17, 2009.