MACOMB, IL – The City of Macomb and the Macomb Area Economic Development Corporation (MAEDCO) held a joint press conference this afternoon at the old K-Mart building on East Jackson Street in Macomb to announce the future of that retail space.
Macomb Mayor Mike Inman and MAEDCO Executive Director Kim Pierce announced two of the three future tenants for the space revealing that two well-known chains, TJ Maxx and Hobby, will be moving into the building that has been empty since 2016.
The project, called Prairie Crossing, has been in the works for a long time. MAEDCO and the California-based Carrington Company have been working together to make it a reality. Carrington bought the building last fall for $1 million, in addition to the former Pizza Hut building on East Jackson as well as the Marine Bank building. TJ Maxx is expected to occupy about 22,000 square feet, with the Hobby Lobby at 55,000 square feet, and a third yet-to-determined tenant will occupy about 20,000 square feet.
Mayor Mike Inman estimated that all told, these three future retail locations would potentially provide 30 to 50 full-time jobs each. Carrington is set to receive a portion of the sales tax revenue generated at the site, up to $1.5 million over the course of the next 20 years. Inman said he does not expect it to take 20 years for Carrington to make that amount, calling such incentives a common practice.
Says Inman, “Our friends down in Quincy incentivized the redevelopment of their Kmart into a Target, and that was a $1 million incentive from them.”
Carrington will be repairing building’s roof and completely renovating the parking lot in front of the building, but it’s up to the new stores to fix up the insides. They are hopeful to have one of the stores open by the end of the year, maybe in time for holiday shopping, but admit that that isn’t a certainty.
