Downtown Park Forest
Downtown Park Forest
Leasing Office
226 Forest Boulevard
Phone: 708-503-8153
Fax: 708-503-9417
E-Mail Us
 Built in the early 1950s, the Park Forest Plaza made history and national news. Shoppers, planners, tourists and reporters flocked to see this phenomenon – a regional shopping mall. Anchored by three major department stores, the mall featured groupings of small stores clustered around an open grassy area. From Park Forest, the developer, Phil Klutznick, moved on to develop Old Orchard, Oak Brook and Water Tower Place. But, Park Forest was the pioneer, the model.
The Village purchased the Park Forest Plaza in December, 1995 and is, once again, making national news with its program to convert the former mall into a traditional, mixed-use, "main street" downtown.
CONVERSION TO A TRADITIONAL DOWNTOWN
The first step in the redevelopment process involved the demolition of over 300,000 square feet of vacant commercial space, including two of the former anchor department stores. A new grid road system through the former grassy mall has been created. The new east/west street has been named, appropriately, Main Street.
A major step in the conversion from a mall to a downtown was the sale of individual parcels and buildings. The first new construction in the Downtown was a new Walgreens on an outlot. Two of the downtown buildings have been sold. The owners are Matanky Realty Group (Building 2) and By Us Construction (Building 3). CVS Drug Store is located on a former parking lot on the corner of Main Street and Western Avenue. There are two senior complexes that have been built on the east side of the Downtown. Victory Center Senior has both an independent and assisted living. Bigelow Homes started Phase I in the fall of 2005, building 63 homes in the Victoria Place development. This is on the west side of the Downtown. Bigelow Homes will be starting Phase II on the southwest corner of the Downtown in Spring, 2008. The former Marshall Fields building will be coming down in the Spring of 2008.
CULTURAL ARTS CENTER
Another major step was the creation of a market niche. As an historically cultural community, the local market niche was culture. One of the retail buildings has been converted to a cultural arts center. It houses the Illinois Theatre Center, an equity theater company, and the Tall Grass Arts Association Art Gallery and School. It also houses the offices and Board Rooms of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra and the Grande Prairie Choral Arts, a classical chorale. Salon Artists Gallery is another art venue located at 294 Main Street.
LEASING
There are eight buildings in the Downtown, six along Main Street. Spaces range from 100 to 8,000 square feet. 2 This is 116,000 square foot building. For leasing information
Two of the buildings contain second story office space. The office space is 97% leased in building One and 75% leased in building Seven. Office space tenants include counseling services, mortgage companies, C. P. A.s, contractors, art studios, piano teachers, administrative office, health care and insurance companies and computer software specialists.
LEASING AND PURCHASE OPPORTUNITIES
There are still spaces available in the Downtown, ground level and second floor office space. They range from 100 to 8,000 square feet. Information on the sale of buildings, parcels of land or leasing contact Sharon Bellino or Hildy Kingma
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