Chicago Illinois Real Estate Blog

Von Maur has signed a letter of intent to open a store at a proposed mega-mall in Joliet, while the upscale department store chain has decided against a store at a proposed center in nearby New Lenox.

The Davenport, Iowa-based chain is planning a two-story, 150,000-square-foot Von Maur that would be a key anchor for the massive Bridge Street Town Centre in Joliet. The proposed $1-billion development at the northeast corner of interstates 80 and 55 is to include 1.7 million square feet of retail along with hotels, housing and some office buildings.

“We feel like we can really make this a regional store,” James von Maur, president of the family-owned retailer, says in an interview. “As our momentum picked up with Joliet, our momentum with New Lenox waned … I feel like the Joliet location will be able to serve those customers because of the easy access from I-80.”

The decision comes as a big blow for the Birches of New Lenox, a 1.1 million-square-foot mall proposed by Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises Inc. Because of the slowdown in the retail and housing markets, the mall’s opening was already pushed back a year to 2011.

A local developer working with Forest City on the project had said Von Maur had agreed to purchase its site there. But Mr. von Maur says the retailer never signed a letter of intent for the Birches project, and never had a binding contract there.

A Forest City spokeswoman and local executive didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Mr. von Maur says the company remains “very much committed” to another big, proposed Will County mall: The Shops at the Polo Club in Plainfield. Sources say the retailer has a lease at the proposed 628,000-square-foot center, but that the project’s developer has few other leases signed and could lose Von Maur if it doesn’t get enough other retailers on board soon.

A spokeswoman for the Polo Club developer, Memphis, Tenn.-based Poag & McEwen, said she wasn’t aware of Von Maur’s status at the project. The mall’s opening was pushed back to spring 2010 from fall 2009.

Mr. von Maur acknowledged that the retailer’s contract with Poag has certain leasing benchmarks the developer must meet, but he declined to provide details.
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