New Starbucks planned for Fairhills Mall

A new Starbucks is slated for Fairhills Mall to replace a problematic location nearby at the corner of Chatham Avenue and Monroe Street.

“The new building will accommodate Starbucks moving from its current location next to Springfield Fire Department’s firehouse #8 on Monroe Street, where the drive-through cars often back out onto Monroe Street in the morning and can interfere with firetrucks,” said Ward 7 Alderman Joe McMenamin, who also serves on the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission.

The SSCRPC addresses planning issues for both the city of Springfield and Sangamon County. At its Jan. 19 meeting, the commission unanimously approved the site plan for the proposed new Starbucks, to be located on the west side of the Fairhills Mall parking lot. While no zoning change will be required, the plan does still need to be approved by the Springfield City Council.

A Springfield-based coffee shop is also planning to build a new store on an outlot of Fairhills Mall. Bill Legge previously announced plans to begin construction this spring on a third location for Grab-A-Java and make the new store a prototype for expansion into other markets.

The new location will be at 300 Chatham Road, the southeast corner of Chatham Road and Monroe Street. In a November interview, Legge told SBJ he considered the proximity to Starbucks to be an advantage, given the long wait times. “I’ve done my own informal studies and there’s, on average, a 13-minute wait in the drive-thru,” he said.

Legge said the architectural work, site work and engineering have been completed and the plan is to break ground in the spring as soon as weather permits.