Story posted Friday, June 26, 2009
Come Together On Metro Square
By TODD WESSELL Journal & Topics Editor
One of the major campaign issues of the last city election was what to do to improve the vacancy rates, shopping opportunities, and tax producing ability of the downtown Des Plaines Metropolitan Square shopping center.
Mayor Marty Moylan last week took a big step toward discovering answers to Metropolitan Square questions by organizing a meeting involving several city officials and top representatives of the companies that own and manage the large office/retail center located north of Miner Street between Lee and Pearson streets.
The purpose of the one-hour meeting held on Wednesday, June 17 was for city officials to become acquainted with owners and managers of the center and to learn what they are doing to fill empty storefronts.
According to Moylan, the city was informed that about 75% of Metropolitan Square's 97,000 sq. ft. of retail space is filled. Approximately 40,000 sq. ft. of that space comprises the Shop & Save food store. Moylan said around 13 of the storefronts are filled leaving several other small spaces unoccupied.
"It appears that there's a lot of empty space there," Moylan told the Journal & Topics Newspapers earlier this week. "That's why we asked for the meeting. There's no benefit for them to keep stores empty. They said they have potential businesses to locate there and they have competitive rates."
One request city officials said they will consider is to allow exterior signs in front of individual Metropolitan Square stores to protrude out from the building surface. The city's current sign ordinance says signs can only protrude a few inches. This rule was implemented years ago to beautify the central business district.
"We agreed we would work together," said Moylan. "Metropolitan Square and the citizens of Des Plaines have a stake in making it successful."
At a meeting of the city's Community Development Committee Monday night in city hall, Mike Conlan, the city's director of Community & Economic Development, explained that Metropolitan Square is a project that includes 142 condominium/loft residences, 27,000 sq. ft. of office space, and a 471-car public garage and civic streetscaping improvements. Its total valuation is approximately $90 million and that the city had committed more than $20 million toward is development. Of that sum, $9.5 million was provided by the city for property acquisition, demolition of buildings and environmental cleanup with another $3.5 million for engineering and infrastructure, and $7 million for construction of the multi--level parking garage behind the Des Plaines Theater.
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