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News
Lifestyle retail center planned in Oswego : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisLifestyle retail center planned in Oswego
| by John Etheredge
| 12/6/2007
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Two development firms are eyeing Oswego as the site for a 500,000 square foot 'lifestyle' shopping center.
The village plan commission will consider a rezoning request this evening, Thursday, at 7 p.m. at the village's public works center for the proposed 'Streets of Oswego' center proposed for a 60 acre parcel located along the south side of U.S. Route 34, west of Ogden Falls Boulevard.
Streets of Oswego would be a joint venture project by V-Land Corporation of Illinois and Continental Real Estate, a lifestyle center developer based in Columbus, Ohio.
The firms are currently seeking village approval to rezone a portion of the project site from R-4 multi-family to B-3 retail business use. The balance of the property was previously zoned for retail business use.
Rod Zenner, community development director, said Tuesday the firms have requested the rezoning to enlarge the center site to accommodate the lifestyle center.
The plan commission will review and render an advisory recommendation on the rezoning to the village board. The board will, in turn, cast the final ballot.
Michael Cassa, executive director of the Oswego Economic Development Corporation (OEDC), said Tuesday that "if all goes well" and the developers obtain the necessary approvals from the village, they would like to break ground for the center "in mid-2008."
As currently planned, Cassa said, the center would be "roughly the size" of Oswego Commons at the southwest corner of Route 34 and Douglas Road.
As now envisioned, Cassa said the open-air center would be comparable to other lifestyle centers that have opened in the suburban Chicago region in recent years, including Geneva Commons and The Promenade Bolingbrook.
"Anyone who has been to Geneva Commons or The Promenade Bolingbrook knows what I'm talking about when I use the term 'lifestyle center'," Cassa said. "It's basically a self-contained commercial center that serves as a home to high quality retail tenants. These are the kind of tenants that not only our community would like to attract, but virtually every community would like."
Cassa added, "Communities around us would like to have a lifestyle center. Not only would it keep a lot of sales tax dollars at home, it would definitely be a source of customers from other communities. There are people from Oswego that go now to Geneva Commons and The Promenade Bolingbrook for this type of shopping experience.
"If this comes to fruition," Cassa continued. "This is how we would get those higher quality restaurants people have been talking about, how we're going to attract the higher quality stores, and it's how we get a bookstore."
Cassa said officials at both Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores have told him if they locate outlets in the village, they would like them to be in a lifestyle center.
When questioned, Cassa and Zenner said the developers have yet to negotiate leases with retailers for the center.
Zenner said the developers' pending rezoning request is the first step in the village's review of the project.
"The developers will have to come back for a site plan approval, once they get the tenants," he said. "That will really serve to finalize the shape of the project and what it will look like."
Cassa said since the developers have yet to announce tenants for the center it would be difficult to estimate the amount of sales tax revenues the center would generate for the village.
"I don't know what it would be, but I can tell you that since the 'purchase points' are going to be higher than they would in a normal retail center, the price tag will be higher," he said. "Yes, the village will collect more in sales taxes because the stores would be higher end."
Cassa noted that Oswego finds itself competing against other lower Fox Valley area communities that are also actively pursuing lifestyle centers. He said the City of Aurora has targeted three potential sites for such a project, including Route 34 and 75th Street, about four miles east of the village.
"This is going to be a battle for who can get their plan together and who can attract the tenants," he said. "This will be truly a regional facility. When you have stores that are this high end, a smaller community like Oswego won't be able to support them on its own. You will have to attract communities from neighboring communities. Oswego residents right now are going to places like Geneva Commons. We want to keep them here and draw people from the other towns."
Nearby homeowners
attended open house
A large crowd of residents from Ogden Falls and other subdivisions adjoining the center site attended an open house for the project hosted by the developers Nov. 28 at Oswego East High School.
Zenner noted that several residents expressed concerns about traffic from the center passing through their adjoining subdivisions.
"I know that Rod (Zenner) and his department will do everything they can working with the developer to try and address the concerns that residents have; so will the village board," he said. "But right now at this point we don't have a site plan to review. What we have right now is just the rezoning request."
Cassa also noted that the tenants that locate stores in the center will serve to dictate the project's design.
"If they land, for example, two or three tenants with stores that each have about 40,000 square feet. That site plan for the center will look different than if they have a whole row of smaller users," he said.
Impact on downtown?
Asked if the siting of a lifestyle center would impact efforts to secure more upscale stores and restaurants in the village's downtown, Cassa said, "The type of stores that we would try to attract to the center would not be the type that would look to locate in our downtown.
"Look at downtown Geneva. It has not attracted national retailers. Naperville has, but that's unusual. But most downtowns like Geneva's are attracting niche retail and restaurants. That's what we want for our downtown. But national tenants, especially at the higher end, are looking to locate in lifestyle centers, not in downtowns," he said. "I don't see a conflict with our downtown at all," he concluded.
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