As new stores fill retail gaps in Macomb and help keep sales tax revenue in the community, even more developments are on the horizon.
This month, Macomb’s new Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx stores opened at Prairie Crossing, the redeveloped site of the old Kmart on East Jackson Street.
Next month, a Chipotle will open down just down the street, and later this year a Beef-A-Roo will open in the former Hardee’s on West Jackson Street.
The city is experiencing retail momentum even as Macomb has lost population and Western Illinois University’s enrollment has declined.
“It happens because we're very truthful when we're marketing our community. The good, the bad, the ugly? We share it. We share it openly without hesitation. But we also counterbalance it with what we're trying to do to rectify that,” said Kim Pierce, President and CEO of the Macomb Area Economic Development Corporation.
Pierce said MAEDCO has been hyper-focused on retail development over the last eight to ten years and had been talking with Hobby Lobby for the last four years. That deal fell into place because of The Carrington Company, a California-based developer that sees potential in empty storefronts in rural areas.
“Carrington Company was looking to invest and they saw opportunity. So we grabbed them and they grabbed us,” Pierce said.
Pierce said stores like Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx keep local shoppers in the community, and that keeps other dollars here, too.
“Because once you leave the community to buy product, you're also probably going to fill your car up in that other place. You're going to also stop and eat. And if you're doing an overnight, you're not staying here. You're going to be doing other things, whether it's associated with shopping or tourism, all the gamut,” Pierce said.
In addition to Prairie Crossing, Carrington Company also owns the former Marine Bank, the old Pizza Hut and Los Charros buildings, and the pad of front of Farm King that houses U.S. Cellular.
As part of the Prairie Crossing development, Shoe Sensation will reopen a Macomb store in June — and other retail outlets could soon follow.
“How great is it to have an announcement in April, have another announcement in May for Chipotle, and have another announcement in June for Shoe Sensation? We still have two vacancies at Prairie Crossing to the east of Hobby Lobby that we are feverishly working on trying to get deals pulled together with Carrington so that they can make the announcement that they're coming into Macomb, Illinois,” Pierce said.
Both the new Center for Performing Arts at WIU and the sports complex the city plans to build in the coming years would bring more people into town — and more sales tax revenue, which Pierce said is local communities’ “bread and butter” — and could attract more retail developers.
“We know that bodies attract commerce,” Pierce said. “If we can show that we have so many visitors a day for a sports complex event, then we know that that will track with those retailers that are like, what's happening in Macomb, Illinois and why aren't we looking at that market?”
Pierce said while plans for the sports complex are in the early stages, the vision is clear.
“We want to see people move into the community. We want to see new construction,” she said.
For now, Pierce said she’s excited about the current retail momentum on both ends of Jackson Street.
“Sometimes I don't even have words for how appreciative we are that we're in the market we are and have the partnerships that we do,” she said.
In addition to Beef-A-Roo on West Jackson, a former bank across the street sold to a developer and Pierce hopes to make an announcement about what’s going there by the end of the year.
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