CHICAGO-Starbucks has signed a lease with theChicago Transit Authority to place its first storewithin an ‘L’ station on the elevated train line.The CTA has about 89 leased spaces for the line,but not much national tenants, and the city asked JonesLang LaSalle a year ago to find more big names to cater toriders.

More than 700,000 people per day ride the eight lines, markedout in separate colors, coming from all parts of the city and theairports and converging into the downtown loop (and the cityprefers the ‘L’ name to the commonly known “el”). The new Starbuckswill go in the North/Clybourn Red Line, adjacentto an Apple store, said CTA presidentForrest Claypool in a statement. Apple providedthe $4 million in 2009 to fund the new station.

“The high customer traffic on the Red Line, in addition to foottraffic near the Apple store is an attractive opportunity for anyconcession retailer,” he said. “We continue to work toward leasingadditional spaces to add even more customer amenities across thesystem.”