HY-VEE’s plans to convert the former Kmart on MacArthur Boulevard to a full-service supermarket appear on track to reach the Springfield City Council in December. The Iowa retailer is scheduled to return to a Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission committee on Thursday with a revised proposal for the supermarket and convenience store at MacArthur and Outer Park Drive. The Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hear Hy-Vee requests Nov. 16 for conditional-use permits to allow for a service-station convenience store, a drive-up pharmacy and package-liquor sales.
“It would allow their large-scale plans and CPUs (conditional permitted use) to reach the city council on the same date,” said Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, who has helped guide the project through the planning and zoning process. At this point, it looks like the project would come before the Dec. 20 council meeting, McMenamin said.
The company also has tentatively scheduled a community meeting for Nov. 10 to explain plans for the former Kmart, he said.
Hy-Vee plans to demolish much of the exterior of the Kmart building and to use the steel frame to construct the supermarket. The former Spillway Lanes bowling alley next door would be demolished for construction of the service station and convenience store. If all the zoning pieces fall into place, Hy-Vee executives have indicated they would like to begin construction in early 2012.
MacArthur TIF
The St. Louis consulting firm of PGA&V, meanwhile, has begun an analysis of a proposed tax-increment financing district that would include both sides of MacArthur Boulevard, alley-to-alley, from South Grand Avenue to Summit Avenue.
There has been no direct link made as yet between creation of the TIF and Hy-Vee plans for the Kmart building, though the retailer has expressed interest in the incentives that would come with a TIF district.
A TIF allows increased property tax revenue from improvements to be reinvested in improvements intended to attract additional development within the district.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 