The filing this week by the Hy-Vee supermarket chain of plans to renovate the former Kmart and bowling alley property represents a major step — in fact, the major step — in the revival of the MacArthur corridor.
Hy-Vee, which operates 230 stores in eight Midwestern states and is based in Des Moines, Iowa, filed plans with the Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission to turn the property into a super center that will include a supermarket and a 2,830-square-foot gas station/convenience store. It plans to raze the bowling alley and use the existing steel superstructure of the old Kmart for a new, 92,474-square-foot grocery store.
“It’s a gigantic catalyst for other improvements,” said Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, who led volunteer efforts to clean up the vacant property as part of his election campaign last spring.
It’s also a major piece of good news for the residential neighborhoods immediately adjacent to MacArthur. The Kmart closure in 2003 created what has become a long-term eyesore, but the departure of the Schnucks grocery store in the Town and Country Shopping Center in 1996 represented a loss for surrounding neighborhoods that still is being felt.
The prospect of being located in a tax increment financing district, an idea pushed by McMenamin and Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe, was among many factors that helped bring Hy-Vee into the picture, McMenamin said.Now it’s important that the city continue its fast-track pursuit of TIF designation, which will allow Hy-Vee and other existing and prospective businesses on MacArthur to use part of their property taxes for continued improvements along the corridor. McMenamin believes the TIF process should be completed by February or March 2012, about the time Hy-Vee is expected to break ground.
It’s been a while since MacArthur north of Wabash has had this kind of good news. We welcome it.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 