A proposal to tear down a dilapidated, nearly abandoned shopping mall at 159th Street and Central Avenue in Oak Forest is expected to go before the City Council in September.
The plan by Tri-Land Properties Inc., of Westchester, calls for razing the Oak Forest Commons strip mall, which once housed an Eagle Foods. The center would be replaced with a 105,000-square-foot shopping mall that would feature a Dominick’s Finer Foods store as the major tenant.
Depending on its success, phase two of the project would add 61,900 square feet of retail space.
The proposal before the City Council calls for declaring the site a tax increment financing district, which would freeze taxes at their current rates and allow any future increases in taxes to pay for the public renovations to the property. Tri-Land has asked for a 20-year TIF agreement. All taxing bodies are said to be in agreement.
Hugh Robinson, vice president of Tri-Land, said that the city is losing its share of sales-tax revenues and that because of the condition of the buildings, the property-tax revenues continue to decline.
“The store will fill a void in the Dominick’s network in how it serves the metro Chicago market,” Robinson said at a public hearing this week.
Dominick’s closed its store at 159th Street and Harlem Avenue five years ago.
