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player ready...Homer Glen trustees will take up later this month special permit and variance requests from a farm and home store that plan commissioners signed off on Monday.
Central Big R Stores Inc. wants to remodel the former Kmart building at 15830 S. Bell Road, have outside sales and erect an electronic sign.
“We have unique products that we think are not being serviced in the area,” said Jerry Gibbs, company CEO.
Big R stores located in Illinois and Indiana “specialize in selling to small farmers” and carry items such as farm supplies, tools, housewares and clothing brands like Carhartt and Levi’s, Gibbs said.
The company hopes to purchase the former Kmart from Sears by early November and complete the remodeling to open in March 2015, he said.
“We think you’re [Homer Glen] just on the periphery where we can pull the farmers in,” Gibbs said.
Renovations will include new lighting, new ceiling treatments, taking out some walls and dedicating more space for shopping, Gibbs said. The company requested a special-use permit for seasonal outdoor sales, such as of plants, a variance to permit a reduction in parking spaces associated with the outdoor sales, a variance for a monument sign with an electronic message center and a variance on the number and amount of wall signs.
During a public hearing before the Plan Commission vote, a Homer Glen resident expressed concern about drainage at the location and a small-business owner questioned why exceptions on signage should be granted to Big R but not to other businesses, such as his own.
The request for an electronic sign was a sticking point with some Plan Commission members but Gibbs said the company’s research indicates the sign will bring in more foot traffic and thereby more sales and tax dollars to Homer Glen.
Commissioners, with one absent, unanimously voted to recommend the special-use permit and variances with some conditions, such as that the electronic sign go dark should it malfunction, to the Village Board.
The board is expected to consider the requests later this month.