Yorkville approves plan for specialty shopping center

August 13, 2008
By ROWENA VERGARA

YORKVILLE -- The City Council unanimously approved a redevelopment agreement for a shopping center at Routes 47 and 34 where a popular retail mall stood for 33 years.

Tri-Land Development of Westchester has plans for a new and improved Countryside Center that will include 166,000 square feet of retail from small boutique shops to a specialty grocery store like Trader Joe's or Fresh and Easy. Fresh and Easy is an organic food store based in England with dozens of stores on the West Coast.

Yorkville city leaders have taken extra caution and time with the project because it is being pegged as a destination for specialty shopping in the city, and possibly the county.

The development has been in the works for about a year, but Tri-Land has been working on redeveloping this since 2005 when the company presented a plan for big-box stores, office space and a hotel, Richard Dube, president of Tri-Land Properties said. But that proposal didn't meet city officials' expectations, nor did it measure up to other large retail developments already in the works along Route 34 and Route 47. In response, Tri-Land went back to the drawing board. "As long as we're not looking at another big box, the smaller retailers can survive quite handsomely in this project," Dube said.

On Tuesday, before aldermen supported the project, leaders stressed the importance for niche retail and one-of-a-kind shopping experiences. "This will set the standard for future commercial developments in our city," Alderman Gary Golinski said.

Dube said the development could break ground by fall 2009, but Tri-Land technically has until March 2010 to propose all the details of its planned unit development, Yorkville Community Development Director Travis Miller said. Tri-Land, however, is confident it can bring retail that will rival shopping centers along Randall Road in Geneva or Route 59 in Naperville.

The company has 30 years of experience in redeveloping underperforming sites in cities like Baltimore, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis, Dube said.