Yorkville lures big retailers

Center on Route 34 grows by five stores

By Heather Giles
Staff Writer

YORKVILLE — Kohl's, Linens 'n Things, Office Max, PetSmart, and the arts and crafts store Michaels are the latest national retailers planning to locate in Yorkville next year.

They will join a previously announced Super Target and Home Depot in a shopping center planned for the northwest corner of Route 34 and Cannonball Trail, Rick Filler of Chicago-based Harlem Irving Cos. said.

"This is truly a phenomenal project that will benefit the citizens, the economic climate and the existing businesses of Yorkville," said Yorkville Economic Development Corporation Director Lynn Dubajic.

In a series of 2004 YEDC surveys, residents, business owners and high school students all named Kohl's as the department store they'd most like to see in Yorkville, and listed Target as their most-coveted general merchandiser.

A regional draw
Harlem Irving is working with Oakbrook-based Mid-America Development Partners on the more than 800,000-square-foot shopping center, dubbed Kendall Marketplace, which is expected to open in 2007.

Other area towns boast some of the planned stores, including a Kohl's slated to open only seven miles up the road in Oswego in October. But Dubajic believes the additional businesses planned for the center — including restaurants, specialty boutiques, an electronics store and a bookstore — will draw shoppers to Yorkville.

City officials have gushed about the jobs and tax revenue the project can bring to the area, lessening the taxpayer burden of new schools and public buildings.

There has so far been no public discussion of whether Yorkville will sweeten the deal. Last year, to lure a Kohl's, North Aurora agreed to part with $15 million in sales tax revenues, and Oswego landed its Kohl's with the promise of $1 million in tax incentives.

"Traditionally, Yorkville has entered into economic incentive agreements with developers for a specific amount of years through sales tax," Dubajic said.

More in store?
Elsewhere along Route 34 in Yorkville, where population and traffic have just recently reached levels appealing to national retailers, developers are quietly courting the chains.

There's room for a big-box retailer in a 158,900-square-foot center on Route 34 and Eldamain Road that the Elgin-based Summit Development Group plans to start building in December, said Les Kristof, whom the company hired to help lease the space.

Westchester-based Tri-Land Properties Inc., the firm rebuilding Countryside Center, at the corner of Routes 34 and 47, is seeking major tenants, though "not the big, big boxes," for its 170,000 square feet of retail space, said Hugh Robinson, the company's vice president.

"It's still very green out there," said Kristof, of Oakbrook-based Edgemark Commercial Real Estate Services. But "it's pretty competitive."

07/31/06