The line of customers stretched from the sidewalk in front of the store onto the adjacent parking lot and extended as far as the eye could see, hugging a temporary cyclone fence that bounded a nearby construction site.
They had come out by the hundreds Wednesday morning — some armed with lawn chairs to ease their hours-long wait, others grasping umbrellas to deflect the intermittent drizzle — in anticipation of the grand opening of the new Carson’s department store at the new Evergreen Plaza.
“This is madness,” one onlooker said.
“It’s like the South Side Irish Parade or something,” another commented.
About 400 people lined up outside the store entrance — the first arrived at 3:30 a.m. — to wait for the 8 a.m. opening and secure a free gift card (if among the first 250 customers) with up to $500 in store credit.
“Our customers enjoy coming here,” store manager Angela Reed said. “It’s been something that’s been around for ages, so to see it come into something big and new like this, everybody is just so excited.”
The new Carson’s, a sleek, two-story building on 98th Street off Western Avenue, is the first of what is expected to be dozens of commercial establishments coming to Evergreen Park as part of a massive new retail development that revitalizes what had been the iconic Evergreen Plaza, the nation’s first suburban indoor mall.
At its peak in the 1960s and ’70s, the mall had 120 stores and a food court. But as times changed and indoor malls fell out of favor, Evergreen Plaza began losing tenants.
It went into foreclosure about five years ago, and the indoor mall’s remaining stores vacated the premises in 2013, Evergreen Park Mayor Jim Sexton said. Last year, following a number of failed attempts by developers to secure financing to rejuvenate the shopping center, Lormax Stern, a suburban Detroit operation that specializes in restoring or redeveloping old shopping malls, joined forces with Tampa, Fla.-based DeBartolo Development to purchase the distressed property and resurrect it.
As of last fall, when the old Plaza was torn down, only the Carson’s store on the south end, Planet Fitness on the north, an Applebee’s restaurant in an out lot and Enterprise Rent-A-Car in the southeast corner remained.
Sexton said retaining Carson’s, which had been a community mainstay and anchor of the shopping center for more than 50 years, was a priority in any negotiation he had with developers. And while it proved a challenge, because Carson’s had an extremely favorable long-term lease that it sought to negotiate into its new lease, the deal ultimately got worked out.
The new, 119,000-square-foot Carson’s is only a fraction of the size of the old one and doesn’t carry furniture like that store did.
“Larger spaces are definitely old in terms of the amount of productivity that we need now,” said Kathy Bufano, president and CEO of Carson’s parent company, The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. “There is a lot of wasted space.”
She cited the new store’s enhanced energy efficiency, lighting patterns, floor and large windows as elements that give it a more modern look and a bright, open feel.
“That,” Bufano said of the old Carson’s, “was 50-some odd years ago. This will be for the next 50 years.”
Shoppers at the new store Wednesday seemed pleased with the new, tighter layout.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Marie Clark, a Chicago resident who applauded the store’s new look, cleanliness and friendly employees. “I was in line for 1 1/2 hours, but it was worth it.”
In addition to Carson’s, the new Evergreen Plaza outdoor mall will have a Dick’s Sporting Goods, 365 by Whole Foods, T.J. Maxx, Carter Oshkosh, Dress Barn, Rally House, Ulta, DSW and Petco.
Food options at the revamped Plaza include the existing Applebee’s, a new Potbelly’s restaurant, Naf Naf Grill, Raising Cane’s, R Taco and MOD Pizza, along with more than 1,000 square feet of outdoor seating that faces Western Avenue.
Most of the stores and restaurants anticipate opening dates late next spring or early summer.
The development, once complete, will turn Evergreen Park into a “retail shopping destination” like Orland Park, Sexton said.
“Our friends in Beverly and Mount Greenwood and Ashburn and Morgan Park will come there to shop,” he said. “The store is in Evergreen Park, but it’s right on the border of Chicago, so we want everybody.”
Sexton anticipates that Evergreen Park will pull in an additional $35 million to $45 million in sales tax annually once all the new stores are up and running. But residents should not expect a tax rebate as a result of the windfall.
Instead, Sexton said he’d keep things simple. At a time when many communities are struggling to maintain public safety staffing levels and fund employee pensions, he plans to spend the tax dollars in a way that allows Evergreen Park to maintain village services at the high level residents have come to expect.
“These people are very accustomed to getting their snow plowed before it even drops,” he said. “And when they call the police department, the police officer is there in two minutes. The fire department is there in about the same time. They’re very used to what they have here, and this affords us to be able to continue that.”
Beyond tax dollars, Sexton said the new shopping center would create a perception among the public and other retailers that Evergreen Park and its neighbors are worth investing in.
“When retailers start to group, it’s a good thing. They all want to be where the other guy is, where their competition is or where somebody they feel comfortable with is,” he said. “Yeah, it brings the sales tax dollars … but it’s more about perception and where these guys want to be.
“And believe me, they didn’t want to be here before.”
It wasn’t long ago, Sexton said, that Evergreen Park was “redlined” by retail.
“None of them wanted to come here,” he said, referencing a conversation he had years ago with a clothing retailer that had low-end, mid-range and higher-end concepts.
At the time, the company’s representative said it would never consider bringing one of its higher-end chains to Evergreen Park, according to Sexton.
About a dozen years later, it will do just that as part of the new Evergreen Plaza development.
The longtime mayor said he’s pleased with the retail explosion that’s occurred in town under his watch, but he has no intention of resting on his laurels.
“This is just the beginning,” he said, pointing to ongoing discussions about bringing an upscale Japanese hibachi restaurant to the neighborhood. “You can’t ever be done.”
Twitter: @ZakKoeske
