Mayor Greg Sparrow asked City Manager Mark Biernacki and his staff to come up with a proposal for a grocery store liquor license.

Three grocery stores presented their plans to the city council Monday, and all three said they would like to sell liquor.

Pacemaker said it would like to open a 60,000-square-foot store at the corner of Dresser and Annie Glidden roads.

F. Clifford DiLorenzo, from Coniston Consulting, represented the store and showed a map that indicted the population of DeKalb. DiLorenzo said it could co-exist with other stores in DeKalb.

If the facility got a liquor license, he said thinks liquor would account for less than 5 percent of gross sales.

He also said he thinks it could bring in about $450,000 in sales per week.

Kim Wise, developer for a possible grocery store site at Taylor Street and Annie Glidden Road, said he didn’t think such numbers would be possible for the two new stores.

“There’s only so many dollars for groceries,” he said.

Schnuck’s, which wanted to open in that area, said the store would be about 60,000 square feet and also would like a liquor license.

Ralph Cram, from Bond Companies, which owns the old Eagle location on South Fourth Street, said he had two parties very interested in the location.

He said neither stores are from this area.

“If we could get a liquor license, we can open a store in 90 days,” he said.

Cram said the only problem the council might have with giving the store a license is it is so close to DeKalb High School.

Biernacki said the presentations from the businesses prove how useful a separate liquor license for grocery stores could be.

The only grocery store that currently is able to sell liquor is Jewel-Osco, 1320 Sycamore Road. Its liquor facility is separated from the grocery store.

Sparrow said an additional Class A liquor license will be added in about 60 days when a special census is expected to put the population above 40,000 people.

Fifth Ward Alderman Patrick Conboy said he would like to see this happen as quickly as possible.

“We owe it to the community,” he said. “I’ll vote twice for anyone that’s missing.”

Sparrow stressed this is just a consideration and it is a long way from being decided.

Community Development Director Paul Rasmussen presented the Growth Summit findings at the meeting. He said the special census probably will count 47,000 people as opposed to the original 50,000 that originally was estimated. He also said they would like to keep the population growth rate at about 2 percent a year or under that mark.