The Old Riverbrook Center Is Waiting on a Grocery Store Again

As of October 2026, the former Riverbrook Shopping Center at North Aurora Road and Raymond Drive has one new business open. That business is TESO Life, which opened in July. Six or more other tenants have been announced, and the anchor is a 99 Ranch Market supermarket that is now expected in 2027.

This is the second time the center has waited on a grocery store. It struggled after Dominick's left more than a decade ago, and the redevelopment depends on bringing a large grocer back. That grocer also happens to be the last major piece on the schedule. Until 99 Ranch opens, the center works best as a quick stop for one store and possibly a restaurant or two. After 99 Ranch opens, it has a chance to become a weekly errand again.

What you can visit on North Aurora Road right now

TESO Life fills 18,016 square feet at 1555 N. Aurora Road, Suite 113. It is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Naperville Sun's July preview said some people have called it an Asian version of Target, and the store carries a wider mix than a typical specialty shop.

The shelves include:

• Chinese, Japanese and Korean snacks, some of them uncommon in the U.S.
• Japanese and other Asian beauty products
• Blind-box collectibles from brands such as Smiski and Sonny Angel
• Homeware and lifestyle goods

Entrepreneur Andy Lin founded the New York-based chain in 2017 and opened its first storefront in 2018. The Naperville store is the brand's second in Illinois, after Niles. A third location was planned for Rolling Meadows later in 2026. For anyone in north Naperville, this is now the closest TESO by a wide margin.

Even the opening date shows how much this project has shifted. TESO and the Naperville Sun gave Saturday, July 11 as opening day, while Naper Today reported that the doors opened Sunday, July 12. Either way, the store opened in mid-July 2026.

A grocery-shaped gap since 2013

The center covers 19.8 acres and 140,892 square feet at 1523 N. Aurora Road. Dominick's anchored it. The chain began closing its remaining stores in late 2013, and the center's occupancy declined in the years that followed. NCTV17's 2024 report has the history. By the time Houston-based NewQuest Asia-Pacific Retail bought the property in 2023, it was only about 35% leased.

The timeline since the purchase:

1. January 9, 2024. NewQuest announced a full renovation of the 27-year-old center, with green space and Asian-focused retail and dining. Construction was expected to begin that February, and the grand opening was targeted for summer 2025.
2. January 2, 2026. The Naperville Development Partnership announced seven tenants, with 99 Ranch Market at the top of the list.
3. July 2026. TESO Life opened as the first new business, about a year after the original grand-opening target.
4. October 7, 2026. NCTV17 reported that three more businesses would open over the next few months, with the supermarket among them.

The supermarket's own schedule has also slipped. Naperville Development Partnership President Monica Conners told the Chicago Tribune that 99 Ranch now expects to open in 2027, which is later than first projected.

The supermarket the rest of the plan depends on

Local reporting has described 99 Ranch Market as a 40,000-square-foot store, and NewQuest's September 2026 leasing flyer lists the space at 44,228 square feet. By either figure, it is the center's largest tenant by a wide margin. The chain has 66 locations in 11 states, and this would be its first in Illinois. The Naperville Sun describes it as one of the country's largest Asian grocery retailers and says it is known for a hot deli with dim sum and Chinese barbecue meats.

The supermarket explains the rest of the tenant list. A grocery store of that size brings people back every week, and the cafés and restaurants around it are planned to benefit from those trips. Speaking to NCTV17, Conners described the lineup this way:

"We are getting a look at brands that are really not looking [at] very many other places in Illinois."

NewQuest's long-term plan calls for more than 20 businesses at the site, including restaurants, retail and experiential uses. Most of those businesses are being planned around a grocery store that has not opened yet.

The tenant list, sorted by how firm each plan is

Naperville has seen several tenant lists for this center since January, and they differ. Here is where each named business stood in the most recent reporting as of early October 2026.

Open now

• TESO Life, Suite 113, open since July 2026

Expected by early 2027, according to NCTV17's October 7 report

• 99 Ranch Market, the anchor supermarket
• Fat Miilk Coffee, a Vietnamese coffee shop whose chef appeared on Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars
• Tokyo Shokudo, a Japanese restaurant

Announced, with no opening date

• Ba Le Sandwiches
• CHICHA San Chen, which was not on the January list and appears in NewQuest's September flyer in a 2,302-square-foot space

Status unclear

• Kitakata Ramen. In July, the general manager of the chain's Hoffman Estates location said the Naperville restaurant planned to open in fall 2026. NewQuest's September 2026 leasing flyer still shows it on the site plan in a 2,400-square-foot space. The October NCTV17 update did not mention it, and the restaurant's online ordering page for 1603 N. Aurora Road shows that it is not taking online orders. None of these sources says the plan has been dropped or delayed.
• Gen Korean BBQ. It was on the January 2026 tenant list and in the Naperville Sun's July list of previously announced businesses. It does not appear in the tenant schedule on NewQuest's September flyer or in NCTV17's October update. No source reports that it has withdrawn.

The spread of these dates reflects the kind of work happening on site. Naper Today reported that the construction includes upgraded electrical capacity for restaurant tenants, along with façade improvements and new landscaping. A retail store like TESO can open while kitchen-ready infrastructure is still being installed, but restaurants and a supermarket deli generally need that work completed first.

Which name to search for

The center has had three names in 2026. In July, the Naperville Sun and Naper Today called it NPV City Market. NewQuest's property portfolio and its September leasing flyer now list it as "Asia MKT at Naperville." NCTV17 reported on October 7 that the center will be renamed Asia Market.

The addresses vary too. The 2024 reporting gave the center's address as 1523 N. Aurora Road, NewQuest's current portfolio lists 1547 N. Aurora Road, and TESO is at 1555 N. Aurora Road. All three are at the corner of North Aurora Road and Raymond Drive, so searching for TESO's address is the simplest way to get there. The center is also near the Metra line, which NewQuest has cited as one reason it chose the location.

For the rest of 2026, the trip is mainly for TESO Life and whatever opens next. Fat Miilk Coffee and Tokyo Shokudo are the most likely next openings based on current reporting, and 99 Ranch is expected in 2027.

A long-dormant shopping center filling up again affects the surrounding blocks, including how often people drive along North Aurora Road and how a neighborhood looks to someone seeing it for the first time. If you live near the old Riverbrook center and want to know how its revival compares with recent activity on your street, Sandy Hunter Homes can prepare an instant home valuation using current local data.