Bloomingdale exploring ways to help Stratford Square
Bloomingdale is considering additional incentives for Stratford Square Mall, which has lost two anchor stores and is poised to lose a third.
Village trustees on Monday night talked about two proposals to help the mall. The first would allow the mall's owner, StreetMac LLC, to collect additional money from an existing 1 percent sales tax on all purchases made at Stratford Square. The second idea would increase the size of the business district where the special sales tax is collected.
The board discussion came less than a week after the Carson's department store chain announced that it will close its remaining stores as a result of a bankruptcy sale of its parent company.
But Village President Franco Coladipietro said Bloomingdale officials have been talking for months with StreetMac about the future of the mall, which lost Macy's last year. The mall's J.C. Penney store closed in 2014.
No final decision about the proposed incentives has been made.
"We're just at the beginning stage of discussing it at the board level," Coladipietro said.
StreetMac is planning to spend more than $42 million to improve the mall, including landscaping, pavement work and upgrades to entrances. The company wants to attract new retail, entertainment and restaurants to fill the empty store spaces.
One of the proposals being considered by the village would allow StreetMac to recoup some of that investment.
Bloomingdale has had a business district sales tax for Stratford Square for a decade. Last year, the business district generated nearly $1 million. Almost all the money collected from the extra 1 percent sales tax goes to the mall's owner to help cover the cost of improvements.
But there's a limit on how much money can be paid out before the tax ends in 2030.
Since the tax was implemented, the village has paid roughly $11.8 million toward the $20 million cap. StreetMac has asked the village to increase the cap to $35 million. If the request were approved, it would give StreetMac the opportunity to recoup up to $15 million of the money it plans to spend to improve the mall.
"It would really become their responsibility to make improvements that would allow them to hit those numbers so that they can receive the reimbursement back," Village Administrator Pietro Scalera said Monday night.
Stratford Square officials have said the village would benefit if the mall flourished because it would receive more revenue from the standard sales tax collected there.
Still, Coladipietro said he wants to modify how the mall's owner is reimbursed. He said the village board should have the ability to approve or deny reimbursement requests.
"In order to receive any of that incentive amount, they have to come to the village board with details of the project," he said. "Then this board would evaluate those requests."
The village also is considering expanding the business district, which has only the mall. If the change were approved, vendors located along the mall's ring road would be added. It hasn't been determined which properties would be added.
Coladipietro said expanding the business district could help spark redevelopment along the ring road. "If you're bringing more cars into the area," he said, "hopefully that will help the mall as well."