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Trader Joe's, the quirky grocery store chain with a cult following, is inching toward opening in Oak Park. And downtown officials hope a few recent events will squash rumors of the specialty retailer doing otherwise.

Construction plans for the new store, in the slowly rising Whiteco building at 483 N. Harlem Ave., were approved by the village last week. All that remains is for Trader Joe's contractors to gain consent from the village, said Bob Clements, acting director of development services.

"They're stamped and approved," Clements said.

Pieces of the precast building started arriving on the construction site Monday, Clements said, and crews are working to assemble it.

Ever since the popular grocer-known for courting the well-read and underpaid in fun and persnickety ways-announced plans for opening in Oak Park, rumors have been ongoing about whether the village would get its own Trader Joe's: from talk about a pullback because of the economy to buzz about reconsideration of the Whiteco building for a spot in Forest Park.

Pat Zubak, executive director of Downtown Oak Park, said that as recently as yesterday, a downtown merchant claimed the grocer was no longer opening a store in Oak Park.

"I was starting to get a little paranoid myself," Zubak said, telling how yesterday's rumor prompted her to call Whiteco after finding no mention of Oak Park under "coming soon" on Trader Joe's site.

"That's the thing about rumors; they're pervasive and very persuasive when you hear so many of them. We're trying to dispel rumors whenever we can," Zubak said, adding that Whiteco confirmed Trader's Joe's arrival.

Calls to Whiteco Residential by Wednesday Journal weren't returned Friday. But at a village board meeting last month, Matt Chambers, executive vice president of Whiteco, said the company had signed a lease with the California-based grocer.

Trader Joe's spokesperson Alison Mochizuki would not confirm that lease agreement Friday, but did say the company plans to open a 10,250-square-foot store in Oak Park by this winter.

The company has about 300 markets across the country, 15 of them in Chicagoland.

Downtown Oak Park recently added Trader Joe's name to the list of merchants on its Web site and placed its location on a new map of downtown businesses.

Representatives of the store have gone before Oak Park's Liquor Control Review Board twice seeking a liquor license, yet to be approved by the village board.

In 2006 survey done by Downtown Oak Park, Trader Joe's-by a wide margin-was the business Oak Parkers most wanted to see in the village.

"I think it's going to be a huge celebration when they finally open their doors, and I think the community has been awaiting their opening quite impatiently," Zubak said.

For more details about Trader Joe's coming to Oak Park, check the May 7 print edition of Wednesday Journal.