Mag Mile popcorn shop gets a reprieve

Though it will still have to move from its flagship store on Michigan Avenue, Garrett Popcorn Shops has been granted a bit more time by the building's landlord.

The shop at 670 N. Michigan Ave., where tourists stand in long lines for popcorn treats, must make way for a Ritz-Carlton condo building planned for 664 N. Michigan Ave. The shop had been scheduled to pop its last kernel of corn on Saturday, but the building's landlord has granted the shop an extension.

According to a release Friday night from Garrett's public relations firm, the shop's landlord has granted them a "temporary extension of their lease." The release did not state how long the lease was extended.

The company has been “in active discussions with a few landlords” elsewhere on Michigan Avenue, Scott Schroeder, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Chicago-based Garrett Popcorn Shops, has said.

The condo development will also force the closing of Hanig’s Footwear at 660 N. Michigan Ave., but it has already opened another shoe store in the John Hancock Center.

Garrett, which runs five stores in Chicago and two in New York, is opening two new stores at O’Hare Airport this summer -- one in Concourse B and another in Terminal 3. It also will expand its New York presence this summer by opening a shop in the MSNBC.com Café at Rockefeller Center.

Garrett’s founding family sold the chain to Chicago businessmen Lance Chody and James Sharpe about three years ago.

The new owners revamped the popcorn shop’s Web site and got a big boost when Oprah Winfrey listed their popcorn as one of her favorite things.