After years of trying to acquire the struggling River Oaks shopping center for redevelopment, Calumet City announced architectural plans Thursday for a complex that incorporates retail, restaurants and housing, despite the city still not owning the property.
Gregory Williams, president of the architectural firm Gregory Ramon Design Studio, presented the City Council with visions of a sprawling, modern campus surrounded by a park that would replace sprawling pavement.
Williams said working with the city, the firm envisions transforming the 11-acre site into “something that would make it useful 24/7.”
“Really a vibrant, thriving development that will help with the community development, economic growth,” Williams said. “Those things will provide a catalyst for not only this but also other developments around here.”
The ambitious public-private partnership to revitalize the space and hopefully serve as an economic engine to the Southland community would come with a steep $110 million price tag, Williams said. And, according to Mayor Thaddeus Jones, the city has yet to acquire the building from Namdar Realty Group, which purchased River Oaks in 2017 and has done little with the property since.
Jones said the city has committed to buying the 1.4 million-square-foot space for market value, between $4 million and $7 million, but Namdar recently “did a U-turn” and raised the price far beyond what the city thinks reasonable, bringing negotiations to a standstill. A possible path forward, Jones said, is developing the 40 surrounding acres the city already owns to create an “entertainment district” without actually buying the building.
“We’re not going to stop because of them,” Jones said. “We offered them fair value for it, we tried to negotiate with them, but we’re at the breaking point now. … We’ve given them 2 1/2 years to come to the table and they’ve been giving us the runaround.”
Namdar did not immediately respond to questions about its plans for River Oaks.
The city’s imagined plan would ask the state to cover $60 million of the cost and a developer to fund the rest, Jones said. He said the city has received interest from two potential developers and hope to secure a contract in six to eight months.
Other next steps include investigating the state of the building, which Williams said has not been well maintained since it was constructed in the 1970s, conducting a market analysis and further engaging with the community. The outdoor mall was enclosed in the early 1990s.
The design includes spaces for the existing Shoe Carnival and Shoppers World retailers but reimagines much of the existing mall as apartments, restaurants, entertainment areas and offices. The restaurants presented Thursday include Wildberry, Kilwins, Fat Burger, Buona Beef, Honey Kettle Chicken and Oberwies.
Much of the existing parking area will transition into green space and there are plans for rooftop community areas, Williams said.
“It’s a fairly large site with a lot of activity,” Williams said. “We’re really looking to see how can we take advantage of that to develop something that would make better use of the space now based on the needs and things that people are looking for these days.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
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