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player ready...Wal-Mart’s proposal to build an expandable 147,000-square-foot retail store will be passed on to the Mokena Planning Commission, but the discount retailer is unlikely to find an easy path to acceptance.
Nearly 200 people turned out Wednesday to hear Wal-Mart make its case to the village’s Concept Review Committee. Most of the audience was hostile to the company’s proposed 31-acre shopping center near the southwest corner of 191st Street and La Grange Road.
The most controversial part of the plan gives Wal-Mart the option to expand the store into a 202,000-square-foot superstore that could be open for business 24 hours a day.
“I would never want to see a 24-hour store,” said committee member Kathy Schlegel. “I am not sure a 24-hour store would promote the image” of the village, Schlegel said.
Company representatives said they had altered their original proposal to take concerns about traffic into account and had redesigned the site with a unique building style.
An economic analysis by Jim Prosser, a consultant for Ehlers and Associates, predicted $40 million in sales from the discount store generating $265,563 in real estate taxes and $539,993 in state and local sales taxes.
Some, including resident Rich Haywood, welcomed the development. “We have to start letting business in here. All of us do because we need the money,” he said.