Evergreen Park Carson’s site eyed for incentives
The shuttered Carson’s store located in the Evergreen Plaza shopping area in Evergreen Park has been designated by the village as “severely blighted” and is now eligible for Class 8 property tax incentives.
A national retailer told village officials it was willing to invest more than $10 million in improvements to the old Carson’s site with the assistance of the property owner, according to a resolution that was passed at the Evergreen Park Village Board meeting April 4.
The board approved the Class 8 status of the old Carson’s store by a unanimous vote. It must now be approved by the Cook County Board.
According to the resolution, the new retailer will provide first-class merchandise at the Evergreen Park location. The two-story structure is 120,000 square feet.
The property at 9700 S. Western Ave. has been vacant for over two years. Carson’s had originally opened at the new Evergreen Plaza in September of 2016. Bon-Ton Stores, the owner of Carson’s, declared bankruptcy in February 2018 and ceased operating two months later after no buyer came forward.
But a revamped and restructured Carson’s opened its doors once again for shoppers on Nov. 23, 2018, which was on “Black Friday.” This occurred after then Evergreen Park Mayor James Sexton was attempting to find new tenants for the site when a representative from DirectBuy in Merrillville, Indiana, owned by SCC Generation, called him stating they were interested in reopening Carson’s.
The newest version of Carson’s was going to operate as a brick-and-mortar store for half the week and an online entity the other half. There also were plans to reopen the Carson’s store at Orland Square Mall, as well. Unfortunately, the operation could not sustain profits, was hampered severely by COVID-19 and ultimately closed.
The original Evergreen Plaza shopping center opened in 1952 and was the nation’s first regional mall. It was an open-air mall until it was enclosed in the 1960s.
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In 2014, owners demolished the plaza and redeveloped it with a smaller footprint. In October, the 255,000-square-foot shopping center on Western Avenue was purchased for just over $67 million by California investment firm LBX Investments from a joint venture between Fortress Investment Group and Lormax Stern.
An empty 120,000-square-foot storefront at the southern end of the property is still for sale or lease.
Big Lots moving to Country Club Hills
A south suburban Big Lots store is moving from Homewood to Country Club Hills.
The Cook County Board last week approved a Class 8 property tax incentive requested by the village for the Shops at Coopers Grove, 4044-4122 W. 183rd St., to lease 36,000 square feet of the shopping plaza to Big Lots.
The store will carry furniture with mattresses, leasing, and delivery available, fresh dairy and frozen foods.
The Big Lots store in Homewood is clearing out inventory, but no closing date has been announced.
The new store is scheduled to open in mid-May.
In addition, the County Board also approved property tax incentives to aid developments in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood, Markham, and Lansing.
A Class 7 property tax incentive was approved to support the ongoing redevelopment of a long vacant Target store at 87th and Cottage Grove in Chatham into a customer care call center.
“I’m thrilled that Cook County can support the redevelopment of this critical site in Chatham.” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “Projects like this create quality jobs, bring much needed investment to communities and put properties back on the tax rolls. This is just the type of project that tax incentives are intended to support.”
Construction of the call center is expected to be completed this summer.
A Class 8 incentive was approved for Wolfsburg Properties LLC to lease a warehouse at 2125 W. 162nd Street, Markham, to Arka Express Inc., a related entity for logistics and freight focusing on dry goods shipments.
In Lansing, a Class 8 incentive was approved for Junk King to use a warehouse at 17406 Burnham Ave. to store equipment, tools and supplies.
Orland Square Mall celebrates Earth Week
Orland Square Mall in Orland Park is celebrating Earth Week with a focus on sustainability, recycling, donations and more.
In addition, Orland Square is teaming with Give Back Box, offering shoppers the ability to reuse any cardboard box by filling it with gently used clothing, shoes, and accessories, printing a free, prepaid shipping label and the donations will then be sent to a local charity.
Visitors can also learn about the importance of bees at the Save the Bees display sponsored by Bee Haven, a Crete-based nonprofit organization. Guests can have a photo taken in front of an oversized bee garden balloon display.
The display will be available from April 14-22 in the mall’s Center Court.
Journeys reopens in Hodgkins
Nashville-based Journeys, a specialty chain retailer, owned by Genesco, of branded fashion footwear and accessories, reopened on Saturday inside the Quarry shopping center in southwest suburban Hodgkins.
The store closed its previous location in the mall last summer to make room for a new ALDI store, which opened in October after moving from Countryside.
Journeys has about 1,200 stores under five brand names nationwide.
Bob Bong is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].
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