Multimillion-dollar makeover planned for Park Place Shopping Center in Palatine

The Park Place Shopping Center in Palatine will receive a multimillion-dollar makeover.

The Palatine village council this week authorized Mayor Jim Schwantz to execute a redevelopment agreement for facade improvements and other upgrades at the shopping center, 1365 N. Rand Road.

The deal could include up to $2.5 million in village assistance from the Rand Road Corridor TIF District.

The owners of the center, left with large vacancies following the departures of Whole Foods and TJ Maxx, are proposing a $20 million to $25 million project that includes extensive renovations to the exterior, interior modifications and potential development of the outlots.

Improvements must be completed by Oct. 31, 2025, under the development proposal.

Village Manager Reid Ottesen said the village has worked with the owner to seek new tenants. Recent additions include a Goodwill store, as well as a U-Haul facility in the former TJ Maxx space.

However, the center, which faces Walmart across a parking lot littered with discarded pop bottles, has a gaping hole of empty storefront area, including the old Whole Foods space.

"The center owner is now looking to make a significant investment in the rest of the center," Ottesen told the village council Monday night.

Modifications include raising roofs to bring the spaces more in line with the tastes of today's tenants, he said.

Visually, the center will adopt a look more in line with the Goodwill theme, said Savas Er, manager of the property owner, North American Real Estate Venture LLC.

Ottesen said any village assistance will be tied to the owners' generating sales tax dollars.

"So they would make the investment and as long as they lease it to tenants that are generating sales tax, then we make incremental payments back to them," he said.

The final payment of $300,000 is contingent upon a outlot, "ground-up" development taking place.