‘A perfect opportunity’: Former Wheeling Kmart site may finally be redeveloped
A gas station and a garden center could be coming to the long-vacant, former Kmart property in Wheeling and adjoining land where a small shopping plaza stands.
The roughly 10-acre site is on the northeast corner of Elmhurst and Dundee roads, just a short drive west of the Wheeling Town Center complex, Wheeling’s municipal campus and the Wheeling Park District’s Community Recreation Center.
The retail plaza directly at the corner has some tenants, including Las Islas Marias restaurant and Shirley Nails, but several storefronts are vacant. The Kmart store was to the east; it closed in 2002 and the building was razed in 2009.
A Gas N Wash operation — with fuel pumps, a convenience store and a car wash — is proposed for the land occupied by the plaza. It’ll be the village’s second Gas N Wash; the other opened last year on Hintz Road.
A Reds Garden Center would be built where the Kmart stood. The 58-year-old Reds facility on Dundee Road in Northbrook is shutting down and would relocate here.
Part of the Wheeling property would remain undeveloped for stormwater management, plans indicate. There’s also room on the site for a third business to be built if eventually desired, officials said.
Wheeling staffers helped bring Reds to the project after learning of Gas N Wash’s plan for the corner parcel, Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said. He called Reds a “legacy” retailer that will introduce an established customer base to Wheeling’s restaurants and other businesses.
“We just saw a perfect opportunity and chased it,” Sfondilis said in an email. “The two uses would generate different but complementary traffic, with opportunities for customers to patronize both during the same trip.”
The two properties are parts of separate financial trusts benefiting different members of the same family, said real estate broker Larry Dickstein of Arlington Heights-based Land Partners LLC. If the sale goes through, Dickstein said, Gas N Wash will own its part of the property and Reds will own its section.
Village officials long have believed that redevelopment of the Kmart site wouldn’t occur until a company or companies acquired the entire corner, including the active shopping plaza, Sfondilis said. Wheeling briefly had a contract to buy the property in 2008, but the deal fell apart when a would-be developer reportedly backed out.
The new plan “offers a credible path forward after years of proposals that did not materialize,” Sfondilis said.
The village board reviewed the plan Monday night as an early step in the redevelopment process. No formal action was taken, but all six trustees and Village President Pat Horcher voiced strong support for the plan and thanked representatives from both companies for putting it together.
“I love the concept,” Trustee Mary Papantos said. “I think it’s a great match.”
One audience member opposed the project. Bonnie Singer, who owns Bonnie’s Gaming at 31 N. Elmhurst Road in the shopping plaza, said she signed a lease for the space about a year ago and accused the landlord of misleading her about the plaza’s future.
Economic Development Director Len Becker said village staffers will work with tenants of the plaza to find new homes in town. That might be difficult for Bonnie’s, however, because gambling-based businesses are restricted in town, Becker said.
After the plan is refined to deal with issues like traffic patterns and site access, the project will go to the plan commission for review and then to the village board for final consideration, Sfondilis said.
Construction could begin in spring 2027 and wrap up about six months later, said Alex Kugar, Gas N Wash’s vice president of finance.
rlissau@dailyherald.com