Consider for a moment the uncertain fate of all those shuttered big boxes dotting DuPage County.
Think of the empty Venture store at Main Street and North Avenue in Glendale Heights. The forlorn Handy Andy outlets in Lombard and Wheaton and a deserted Kmart along North Avenue in Carol Stream, not to mention the big enchilada of dead retail space in the western suburbs, the St. Charles Mall.
You call ’em empty storefronts.
In real estate parlance they’re known as big boxes. Or perhaps the better term is not-so-big boxes, because most of these properties no longer fit the space needs of mega-retailers like Menards and Dominick’s.
“Unless you find an alternate use, the 45,000-square-foot big box is a knock-down in today’s market,” said Scott Nicholson of Oak Brook-based Tanguay, Burke and Stratton, a real estate management firm, “because larger retailers like Dominick’s Fresh Stores require a minimum of 65,000 square feet.
“Developers have had success turning 45,000-square-foot big boxes into antique mini-malls. Entertainment centers, health clubs and flea markets are other uses, and car dealers sometimes show interest in them. But it takes patience and imagination to re-tenant a big box.”
Main Street Plaza on Geneva Road just east of Schmale Road in Wheaton offers rather a stark vision of what happens when a shopping center loses its anchor tenants, and patience and imagination have worn thin. Within the last four years, Handy Andy, Trak Auto and Crown Books have exited Main Street Plaza, leaving behind a dozen or so small businesses that no longer benefit from destination traffic drawn by former big-name neighbors.
Ken Lindeman owns the Domino’s Pizza franchise at Main Street Plaza, along with eight other Domino’s outlets in DuPage County. Lindeman has been through the boom-bust cycle twice with his Wheaton stores at Main Street Plaza and First National Plaza on Butterfield Road.
“I’m seriously looking at moving the Main Street Plaza store,” Lindeman said. “Business at my other eight locations is up 7 percent in 1997, but I’m down 10 percent at Main Street Plaza, and losing Handy Andy is the obvious reason. That was a hard hit. I’ve been at Main Street Plaza since 1989, and the same thing happened when the Ames store closed. Business fell off until Handy Andy opened in its place.
“Lack of foot traffic isn’t really the issue there,” Lindeman added, “because 85 to 90 percent of Domino’s business is delivery. What I lost when Handy Andy left was the destination shopper. The mom running errands who’d save Handy Andy for her last stop, call ahead and tell us to have a pizza ready for pickup at 5 p.m. We don’t have that customer anymore at Main Street Plaza. You’d think we’d pick up business from the Jewel store adjoining our lot, but the problem there is location. We’re around the corner, just out of sight, and people don’t think of us.”
Lindeman has experienced the reverse phenomenon at his Butterfield Road store in the First National Plaza: “The situation on Butterfield was worse than Main Street Plaza. Frank’s Finer Foods closed and the building stood vacant for two years until Fox Bowl moved in, and now we have more customers than when it was Frank’s. First National Plaza is one of my strongest locations, but again without a Handy Andy or a Fox Bowl as an attraction, you have nobody around to see your business.”
A late-night drive through the old Venture parking lot at North Avenue and Main Street in Glendale Heights holds the creepy feeling of cruising a post-Industrial Age ghost town. Sad buildings stand in gloomy silence, sealed off and preserved, but for what reason?
Venture pulled the plug on its North Avenue site in 1995; Jewel bailed out several years earlier, as did Payless Shoes. For now, Hiffman Shaffer Associates as represented by John McGuinnis is listening to any and all proposals for the site.
“I know the Village of Glendale Heights would like to see an alternate use there,” said McGuinnis, who saw a promising deal for a car agency on the Venture property slip through his fingers earlier this year when the client grew impatient with negotiations and looked elsewhere. “A health club has been discussed. The car dealership would have been ideal. The Venture store could also support some sort of labor-intensive business. There’s plenty of parking and room for expansion.
“In fact, one of the problems with that property is its size. Normally you have 10 acres for a shopping center of this type, and with the Venture on North Avenue we’re talking 16 acres. It’s just so darned big. So there have to be other incentives for a retailer to retrofit the property. The Village of Glendale Heights has established a TIF (tax increment financing) district there with tax incentives, and it is a nice site for the right mix of businesses.”
The big-box phenomenon certainly isn’t restricted to DuPage County. Figures from late 1997 that were supplied by Lincolnshire-based CB Commercial Real Estate indicate there are 113 big boxes in the metropolitan area, 22 of which are located in DuPage County. This means 6.2 million square feet of big box space to be absorbed areawide, in addition to projects planned or under construction. For 1998, an estimated 1.2 million square feet of new retail space is expected to be built in the county, according to CB Commercial analyst John Shoddish.
“We’ve seen huge contractions in certain industries,” explained Todd Caruso, senior vice president of CB Commercial. “Think of all the Silo, Highland, Fretter and Polk Brothers stores. They’re gone, and what’s left? Best Buy and Circuit City. So what happens to all the big boxes left behind is redevelopment, reuse. But the big boxes take awhile to absorb, and there aren’t enough traditional retailers, so you look elsewhere. Health Tech is a company that comes to mind. They come into an area, take a 30,000-square-foot big box and sell everything from canes to wheelchairs. The Daily Southtown newspaper moved into former department store space.”
And the old Villa Park Silo store near Roosevelt and Meyers Road is now a thriving Guitar Center outlet.
“There usually are good reasons why a big box remains empty. You look at a former Kmart and wonder why it can’t be turned into a Dominick’s Fresh Store. The answer is not every site is easily converted. Food stores have special heating and air conditioning requirements that often make the deal a wash, so why not build new and do it your way?
“And there’s also the issue of changing shopping patterns. An older site falls out of favor with shoppers. They go to the new shopping center in town, and you want your business to be there with everyone else.”
Jim Hopkins is betting the old St. Charles Mall property at Roosevelt and Randall Roads still has a little pulling power. Hopkins, whose Real Estate Consultants took over leasing responsibilities for the property on Nov. 1, said, “We’re still trying to figure it out ourselves. One option is the E-Zone concept of an entertainment-driven center like 1 Schaumburg Place near Woodfield. A complex with movie theaters, laser tag, go carts and video and music stores.
“I hope people understand the St. Charles Mall never really failed, but was closed by its former owners. The property was embroiled in problems, litigation, foreclosure and then an auction. But the new owner is aggressive and serious about turning it around. We’ve contacted 1,300 prospective tenants. We have an architect doing renderings of more attractive treatments for the five entryways and landscaping. We’ll have updated parking lot lighting and a new name. The St. Charles Mall is now Foxmoor Mall.
“We don’t think this is a flawed site at all. Foxmoor Mall has 46 retail vacancies and the two anchor stores. There is 294,000 square feet of prime retail space on 24 acres with parking for 1,300 cars. My personal feeling is that the two anchor tenants will dictate the direction of the mall — whether we go with the E-Zone concept or attract major retailers for the east and west (anchor) stores.”
Perhaps. Maybe. Almost. Could happen.
Tom Eilers knows the highs and lows of shopping center management. Eilers, leasing agent for Pickwick Place on Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn, has been looking since 1991 for a permanent anchor tenant for the center’s former Dominick’s space.
“When an anchor tenant moves out, you’re faced with either finding a new anchor or splitting the property,” Eilers explained, “and there are always issues to work out. For a while we thought we might bring back Dominick’s, but it all hinged on working a combination deal with the owner of the property to the east of Pickwick Place. We couldn’t get it done, and Dominick’s chose to go into the new Baker Hill shopping center instead.”
In the meantime, the old Sharko’s banquet facility on Roosevelt Road in Villa Park is closed and gathering dust.
Anybody need another micro-brewery?
