Village trustees unanimously approved final development plans for an outdoor mall, which is expected to include a Bass Pro Shop and perhaps a Marshall Field’s.
More Top Picks Home Appliances
The project, called The Promenade at Bolingbrook, proposed by Forest City Bolingbrook LLC, would include more than 836,000 square feet in retail shopping over 87 acres south of Boughton Road at Interstate Highway 355.
Plans call for six restaurants, 90 apparel tenants, a 900-seat movie theater on the second floor of one of the retail buildings and an indoor go-cart racetrack on an outlot on the southern portion of the site.
Trustees also approved increasing the village’s sales tax to 1.5 percent from 1 percent, effective July 1.
Other variances included increasing the size of the monument signs, removing more than 50 percent of the trees on site and alterations in storm-water retention areas.
Mayor Roger Claar said approval comes after two years of planning and negotiation. Forest City also attracted Ikea, the Swedish furniture store, which is slated to open in the fall.
Construction is expected to start on the Promenade in early spring with an estimated opening for Bass Pro within a year, according to Village Atty. James Boan.
The sales tax increase was the first since its inception in 1993, Claar said. The tax is expected to generate $1.4 million this fiscal year, according to Boan. The increase is an effort to shift tax revenue away from property taxes.
The property tax rate is expected to stay frozen at 71 cents, and Claar said the village plans to suspend its 5-cent gas tax.