The dilemma at a shopping center in Schaumburg, Illinois was a true modern one: Trader Joe’s wanted to build a store there, but there was no vacant space in which to build a store. The resourceful owners decided to make more space by covering an artificial pond with the store and its parking lot.

“In late 2013, Trader Joe’s expressed significant interest in establishing a new location at Woodfield Village Green, but, due to the high occupancy level, the shopping center did not have the obvious space required to accommodate the specialty grocer’s footprint,” the mall owner explains on its page about the project. Infrequent visitors to the mall may have wondered how a pond sprouted a specialty grocery store. Thanks to this six-month time lapse video, you can watch exactly what happened during every day of this construction project.

Here’s a quick summary: they built a water retention system that would go underground, then filled in the ex-pond with rocks and gravel, then built a store on top of it.

The video does play audio, but it’s just relatively bland music and not relevant to the actual construction.

Trader Joe's Construction | Woodfield Village Green | DDR Corp. from DDR on Vimeo.

Creative Expansion Brings Trader Joe’s to Chicago Market [DDR] (via Chain Store Age)

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