Target, hotel to anchor expansion to Promenade Bolingbrook

(Crain’s) – The Promenade Bolingbrook shopping center is poised for a major expansion to be anchored by a new Target Corp. store and an Aloft hotel.

Promenade developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. has formed a partnership with Dallas-based Brewer Development LLC to develop a 60-acre parcel east of Janes Avenue and south of Boughton Road off Interstate 355 into a roughly 600,000-square-foot shopping center that would include a general merchandise Target store.

Forest City, which has built the 1-million-square-foot Promenade, an open-air shopping center that features a Macy’s and a Bass Pro Shops store, sold a stake in the 60 acres to Brewer on Jan. 31 for $16.4 million.

Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar says Target is to anchor the expansion, though Forest City executives say their deal with a general merchant for the space isn’t yet finalized and wouldn’t identify Target.

An executive with Brewer, which developed two retail buildings near the Promenade that include a Staples and Bed, Bath & Beyond, didn’t return calls seeking comment.

A spokesman for Minneapolis-based Target, which has a store about five miles away, would only say: “We’re currently exploring opportunities (in Bolingbrook), but there are no immediate plans.”

Forest City’s goal is to have the new center opened by fall of 2010, says Jerry Ferstman, a vice-president with Cleveland-based Forest City who heads the company’s Chicago office.

In addition to the Target, the 60-acre parcel is to include a number of large- to mid-size strip mall stores. Mr. Ferstman says Forest City partnered with Brewer because of the firm’s expertise in strip mall development. Brewer financed its purchase with a $12.3-million “seller take-back” mortgage from Forest City.

Also on the finance front, Forest City earlier this month announced that it refinanced the existing part of the Promenade with a $100-million loan from Prudential Insurance Co.

Work is soon to begin on the first of two planned hotels at the Promenade.

Norfolk, Va.-based hotel developer LTD Management Co. bought a small piece of land from Forest City near the LA Fitness at 751 E. Boughton Road, and is planning to build a 155-room, $23-million Aloft hotel there. Aloft is a new moderately priced brand that’s part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.’s W hotels chain. Construction of the hotel is to begin in coming months with a planned opening for summer next year, according to an LTD spokeswoman. “There’s a lot of great things going on at the Promenade and in Bolingbrook,” says the spokeswoman. “The site has great visibility, and there’s not a whole lot of supply in the Bolingbrook or nearby Naperville markets.”

Mr. Ferstman says Forest City is also working to develop another hotel closer to Interstate 355 that would include conference rooms for business meetings.

He says talks are underway with a “major” brand that he wouldn’t name, adding that Forest City may join in a venture with a hotel development firm or sell its interest to another hotel specialist.

The residential phase of the Promenade is also taking shape. Forest City in December sold a little more than 20 acres west of Janes Avenue across from the planned Target store to a joint venture of Deerfield-based Cobblestone Land Co. and Chicago-based Peak Development for $7.35 million. Peak and Cobblestone are considering plans to build about 100 housing units that would target senior citizens and, possibly, some small offices or medical buildings, says Michael Zucker, a Peak partner. Bolingbrook’s community development director Dennis Kowalczyk says the developers haven’t yet filed plans with the village.