St. Charles candidates weigh in on health of Charlestowne Mall

All candidates for St. Charles City Council agree the Charlestowne Mall needs an injection of vitality. Where they differ is their ideas for addressing the mall’s woes. The Daily Herald recently asked candidates with contested races to share their ideas via a questionnaire and during an endorsement interview.

Ward 2Former Alderman Art Lemke believes the mall should expand the influence of the anchor stores. Lemke pointed to Von Maur#146;s continued success, and said part of that success is attributable to the store increasing its footprint by expanding into the mall while keeping its current roofline. Lemke suggested the other anchor stores could also benefit from an expansion. Lemke#146;s competitor, Rita Payleitner said the empty stores in the mall must have tenants for the entire structure to succeed. She#146;d like to see progress on a proposed ice rink at the mall. She#146;s also interested in bringing a workout facility, coffee shops, boutiques and more teen-friendly stores to drive traffic.#147;Perhaps the novelty of Geneva Commons is over,#148; Payleitner said. #147;Let#146;s make Sears regret moving out.#148;Ward 3Vanessa Bell-LaSota said the key to revitalization is placing more residents near the mall who will shop there. She favors additional rental housing nearby, so residents could walk over to shop. She also favors adding medium and small stores to the mall and the surrounding area to drive traffic. #147;It#146;s not going to be a big box that goes over there,#148; she said. #147;You can build medical offices. New revenue streams would come just from new residents. We need pedestrian-friendly retail, and St. Charles needs to do a better job in attracting those kinds of businesses.#148;Fellow candidate Ray Rogina has been a teacher most of his adult life. He believes the mall would benefit by creating an Elgin Community College extension center in or near the mall. He also believes creating a family atmosphere with an aquarium or another community theater by the mall would bring shoppers to the area. Eventually he sees the mall evolving into something more like a Streets of Woodfield.Ward 4Both incumbent Jim Martin and challenger Steven Gaugel are skeptical that an ice rink as currently discussed for the mall will do anything to actually add shoppers or tenants. Gaugel, however, said he#146;s willing to consider an ice rink just for the sake of seeing how mall ownership believes it fits into the grand scheme of revitalizing the mall.#147;I think we need to have an open dialogue between property owners, and I don#146;t think that#146;s being done,#148; Gaugel said. Martin said the reason there is no dialogue is because mall ownership has ignored every overture the city has made to have a discussion.#147;Had they sat down with us we probably could#146;ve kept the Sears store here,#148; Martin said. #147;That mall is beautiful. To tear it down would be sacrilegious. I would like to see it maintained as an enclosed mall. One of the reasons it never really got off the ground was because it was not a regional mall. It was a local mall. One example was Sears. You tried to buy a piece of furniture there, but it was impossible because the store was too small.#148;Ward 5Alderman Maureen Lewis said she likes the idea of recreational ice rink at the mall. Lewis said the anchor stores and the cinema still do brisk business, and the key is building up traffic around them.Candidate Kim Malay said dialogue with mall ownership, the property owners and the city is critical.#147;I do think it would be important for the city to have a meeting between the Oliver-Hoffman property owners and the mall property owners to determine if there is a grander plan we can accomplish,#148; Malay said.Fellow candidate Jotham Stein said the mall is in a perilous limbo because no one seems to know what the plan is for its future. He said the city needs to lead a focused outreach for tenants and not just wait to see what the new mall ownership has in store. 292423Jotham Stein 9066Kim Malay 11881600Steven Gaugel 300336Jim Martin 11681144Ray Rogina 15002100Rita Payleitner 600813Art Lemke 19582593Maureen Lewis