More in store for Route 34
Coming to Yorkville: Major retailers, theaters possible

By Heather Gillers
Staff Writer

YORKVILLE — Don't hold your breath, but a major shopping center slated for the northwest corner of Route 34 and Cannonball Trail might contain a Target, a Home Depot or a movie theater as early as next year.

Developers who brought those amenities to other area towns have purchased about 194 acres of farmland at the intersection, Yorkville Economic Development Corporation Director Lynn Dubajic announced this week.

Tentative plans for a 500,000-square-foot retail center call for an entertainment venue and about three major stores, as well as restaurants, banks and smaller stores, said Richard Filler, managing director of one of the firms, Chicago-based Harlem Irving Companies.

"We anticipate it being a fairly large center," he said.

No leases have been signed yet, Filler said, and developers warned that it's too early to predict what stores might populate the center.

But Filler called a movie theater "appropriate," and a spokesman for Oakbrook-based Mid-America Development Partners, the other company involved in the deal, said Target and Home Depot were possibilities.

The development will also include housing units, probably built by a third company, but both developers said it was too soon to tell what type or how many.

Open by 2007?

Since the land is currently zoned for agricultural use, the developers must ask Yorkville to rezone it before the City Council can consider any specific building plans. Filler said they plan to do that this spring.

Doors could open for shoppers by 2007, he said.

The developers' designs fit neatly into Yorkville's master plan, which calls for commercial development in the area of Route 34 and Cannonball, said Mayor Art Prochaska.

Dubajic also announced plans for a smaller shopping center at the southeast corner of Route 34 and Eldamain Road. Chicago-based Summit Development Group purchased more than 20 acres of land at that intersection. That property is already zoned for commercial development.

The city hopes to consider more concrete plans for both corners later this year.

"We're eagerly waiting," Dubajic said. "Development is certainly on the horizon."

03/02/06