Randhurst revamp expected to get green light tonight

The Mount Prospect village board is expected tonight to approve the $150 million transformation of Randhurst shopping center into Randhurst Village -- a major retail project that will turn one of the region's first indoor shopping centers into its newest "lifestyle center."

The meeting it scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the village hall at 50 S. Emerson St.

So far, no date has been set to close down the mall, said Bill Cooney, Mount Prospect's director of community development. If the deal is approved tonight, demolition would occur in mid- to late September, village officials said

The redevelopment will entail gutting the main mall area. Casto Lifestyle Properties, which owns the mall with JP Morgan Chase, is proposing to turn the shopping center, opened in 1962, into Randhurst Village, a concept similar to The Glen Town Center in Glenview. The Glenview open-air mall, offices and homes are on 1,100 acres on what used to be the Glenview Naval Air Station.

Casto plans to gut the main Randhurst mall but keep major tenants that are attached to it or on outlots near perimeter roads, including Home Depot, Costco, Carson Pirie Scott, Bed, Bath and Beyond and Borders. A number of restaurants, a hotel and 25 smaller, 1- to 4-story buildings would be scattered around the site. The AMC Theatres would remain but be relocated.

If all goes as planned, the new lifestyle center will open in spring 2010. Casto is currently signing up "several" stores that are expected to be back in the new mall, Cooney said. The rent for retail spaces is expected to be between $25 and $35 per square foot, which he said is typical for lifestyle centers like The Glen and slightly lower than Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg.

There are no ceremonies planned yet for closing the mall, he said.