The City Council recently approved plans for the partial redevelopment of the Southtown Shopping Center site where the Herberger’s and Toys ‘R Us buildings once stood.
The approved development plans include a two-level, 120,000-square-foot Dick’s House of Sport retail building located just to the east of the existing Kohl’s store, and a complementary 18,000-square-foot outdoor athletic field on the north side along I-494.
A future development phase would include a four-story medical office building. The project will also include reconstruction of the parking areas on the eastern half of the site to ensure code compliance and to add landscaping and lighting improvements.
To improve the pedestrian experience, the plan calls for sidewalk connections through the parking lot, sidewalks along Knox Avenue north of American Boulevard, and a sidewalk connection to the existing Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit/pedestrian tunnel under I-494.
The City anticipates more redevelopment at Southtown in the future. A prerequisite for further development is addressing the sanitary sewer capacity constraints in the vicinity.
Work related to the Dick’s House of Sport and the parking lot is expected to begin this fall. Stay tuned for more updates.
