Leases for several tenants could be up at mall
Published 10:27 am Thursday, October 9, 2014
Oak Park Mall will soon officially belong to the city of Austin, and several tenants could soon be looking for a new home.
The Austin Port Authority officially approved an agreement Wednesday to purchase the Oak Park Mall site from Chicago-based Martin Graff of M H Graff & Associates Inc. and Martin Goldman of M J Goldman & Co. Ltd. The deal could take months to finalize as both sides fulfill the agreement.
The Oak Park Mall site will soon go to Hy-Vee, which on Tuesday announced plans to build a new 60,000 to 90,000-square-foot grocery store on the property.
The move will affect several other tenants at the mall. Younkers, Anytime Fitness, the Cinemagic 7 movie theater and the Wells Fargo ATM leases will be honored as part of the deal, but all other tenant leases will be terminated, according to city officials.
Finance Director Tom Dankert said there would likely be five or six empty lots within Oak Park Mall that stores could move into, depending on Hy-Vee’s plans for the site. The mall sale does not include Shopko, which is owned by the retailer.
Part of the mall property is set for demolition, which will cost a little more than $3 million, according to initial estimates.
Hy-Vee will contribute $1 million, the port authority will give $500,000 and the city of Austin will provide $750,000 in reserved capital project funds for the demolition, as well as a new wall and upgrades to Younkers as well as Cinemagic 7. City officials say the rest will come from local and federal grants.
Potholes dot the parking lot of Oak Park Mall. City and Hy-Vee leaders have said that the numerous potholes pocking the mall’s lot are now going to be filled.
The city of Austin and Hy-Vee will also pay to repave the mall’s parking lot, which became notorious over the years for its deteriorated state.
The demolition schedule has yet to be set, according to Hy-Vee and city officials. The city is doing a preliminary project study of the mall site.
The sale was paid for by a $3.3 million grant from the Hormel Foundation. About $250,000 from the sale proceeds will go into escrow to ensure Oak Park Mall’s owners can take care of final expenses to vendors, utilities and back taxes to Mower County, among other things.
Hy-Vee previously had a grocery store at the mall from 1975 to 1985.
