Plaza Sets Closing Date, Potetional Buyer May Be Near Deal

Once a shopping palace in its day, the Plaza will be closing its main building on May 31, while a prospective developer does its due dilligence.

Bruce Provo, president of Kansas City, MO-based Provo Group, the company which owns and operates the mall, confirmed that the interior portion of the 1952-building is being closed, affecting about 40 retail tenants. Carson’s, Planet Fitness and Applebee’s will remain open in their current buildings.

The Evergreen Park mall has been in foreclosure since 2011. After a the Plaza languished. A new developer, Tampa, FL-based DeBartolo Development LLC, is now in the process of negotiating a deal to purchase the property and is doing due diligence.

There were hopes that the current tenants could remain for one last holiday season, but Provo said it was based on his recommendation that the interior of the Plaza close at the end of the month.

DeBartolo, the largest developer in North America and inventor of the enclosed shopping center, is working with the receiver to purchase the mortgage note.

“[The receiver] works with them to sell the note, not the asset,” Provo said. “When [the receiver] sells the note I’ll also make a deal with DeBartolo.”

Provo said his group has been cooperating with DeBartolo during its due diligence process.

“I’ve talked to [DeBartolo] on other issues,” Provo said. “We’ve tried to help whenever we can to get them material. It’s easier to gets books and records from us.”

A 2007 fire followed by the recession hastened the Plaza’s decline. National retailers, such as Circuit City, went into bankruptcy and closed its nationwide stores, including the Evergreen Park store.

“We lost tenants and traffic and the world melted down,” Provo said. “Then the mayor [James Sexton] announced he had a buyer for the note and that destroyed another 25 percent of our traffic.”

Provo also blamed the village’s use of tax relief to land big box retailers Menards, Meijer and Wal-Mart, instead of helping long-time businesses.

“The tendency is for the village to give tax relief to the new guys in town who don’t need it,” Provo said. “We paid taxes for 60 years and never got any relief.”

He expressed sadness for displacing the stores and their employees.

“We were a low-cost rent provider,” Provo said. “It won’t be easy for them to find the rents that we offered. We’re affecting people’s lives.”

Sexton said that should the DeBartolo purchase go through – an announcement is expected in July – demolition could begin as early as December.

Plans are to redevelop the Plaza into an open-air “human life center” with a big box anchor tenant surrounded by smaller stores. Offices and residences are also open for consideration.

Sexton says the Tampa. FL-development group has the deep pockets necessary to finance the purchase of the property. DeBartolo is expected to pump $111 million into redeveloping the Plaza.

“Debartolo hasn’t finalized the deal,” the mayor said. “We’re hoping that it happens. I have met with the representatives several times and those were encouraging meetings.”

Sexton responded to Provo’s comment that the village never worked with the Plaza's owners to offer some type of tax relief deal.

“We would have offered tax relief if we had different management, someone who could prove they could run a mall,” Sexton said. “Obviously he couldn’t or he wouldn’t be in bankruptcy. Everybody has to have a fallback. It can never be your fault.”

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