Former Super Walmart site now on path for smaller development

The site next to Charlestowne Mall that was once to be the home of a Super Walmart, and then the site of a possible mall expansion, is now on track for smaller commercial development.

The 30-acre site south of Foxfield Drive and north of Charlestowne Mall is owned by the Naperville-based Oliver-Hoffmann Corp. A legal settlement between the corporation and the city last year left the site divided into three lots. The two lots closest to the mall were configured to allow Oliver-Hoffmann time to negotiate a development project with the owners of the Charlestowne Mall to bring what would have amounted to another anchor store for the mall. The time allotted in the legal settlement to strike that deal has now expired.

Tonight, the St. Charles Plan Commission will put those two commercial lots on track to be divided into four smaller commercial lots that may open the door to development at the site for smaller businesses that just wouldn't have fit onto the larger lots. Mayor Don DeWitte said he'd certainly like to see some development of the site as opposed to its current dormant state.

"Clearly, there are more options available with four smaller lots than may have been available with the parcel being all one parcel," DeWitte said. "Our goal would be to minimize any commercial development that might occur on that parcel as opposed to maximizing it."

That's perhaps, in part, because nearby residents have kept a wary eye on plans for the land ever since the Walmart idea popped up. Once that plan died, most of their concerns shifted to the third lot on the 30-acre site. That lot is targeted for apartments.

However, even with the commercial lots divided into four smaller lots, the idea of using Oliver-Hoffmann site for some type of mall expansion is not completely dead, DeWitte said.

"A portion of the site, particularly the southern portion of the parcel, could still come into play with regard to any potential expansion of Charlestowne Mall," DeWitte said. "Oliver-Hoffmann would have to come in and submit another re-subdivision. In other words, they would basically have to start the process all over again."

DeWitte and city officials aren't exactly holding their collective breath for a mall expansion to happen any time soon. DeWitte said, as he has previously, that he is aware of a couple entities that have expressed interest in buying Charlestowne Mall but none of them have ever had even an informal conversation with the city. Until that happens the city won't take those expressions of interest too seriously.

"We have always felt that the best use of the 30-acre parcel is to assist in generating or regenerating activity that would have been adjacent to Charlestowne Mall," DeWitte said. "However, it's true, people were not lined up walking out the door with plans to make that happen."