Amazon is opening a new retail location in Chicagoland

Amazon has spent two decades perfecting the art of never leaving your couch. Now it wants you to get in the car.

The e-commerce giant is planning a massive new brick-and-mortar retail location in Orland Park, marking one of its biggest physical-store plays in the Chicago suburbs to date. The proposed development would bring a 225,000-square-foot, one-story retail building to a 35-acre site at the southwest corner of 159th Street and LaGrange Road, which longtime locals may remember as the site of Petey’s II restaurant.

If approved, the project will be a deviation from the Amazon pop-ups most of us are familiar with, but rather more of a full-scale shopping destination. According to plans submitted with the company’s special-use permit application, the store will offer a broad mix of groceries and general merchandise, along with accessory services and the possibility of on-site dining for prepared foods. You’ll be able to grab bananas, batteries and a hot lunch in the same trip—and online order pickup will also be built into the experience. The proposal also includes 837 parking spaces and seven loading docks, plus a smaller warehouse component designed to support in-store operations versus acting as a full fulfillment center. 

Mayor Jim Dodge called the potential investment “a strong signal about the vitality of our community,” noting that the project could generate significant sales tax revenue to support local services and infrastructure. Village leaders have also emphasized the site’s location along a major commercial corridor, framing the development as a long-term anchor for the area. After experimenting with bookstores, cashier-less Amazon Go stores and the ongoing expansion of Whole Foods, Amazon now seems focused on hybrid spaces, like places that blur the line between digital convenience and in-person browsing.

The proposal is scheduled for public discussion at Orland Park’s Plan Commission meeting, with any final approvals to follow at a later Village Board session. There's no grand opening date yet, but Chicagoland might soon have a new kind of Amazon experience that doesn't come in a box.