Southtown: Evergreen Plaza to be torn down for new mall

Steve Metsch, Daily Southtown

I know that this is really outside of the scope of this blog, however, surely many who live on this part of town have at least once shopped at Evergreen Plaza. The mall closed in 2013 after a steady decline of shoppers and stores.

Now Evergreen Park has some new plans for this property:

 The Plaza, the aging and nearly vacant mall in Evergreen Park, will be torn down and replaced with an outdoor mall featuring 30 to 40 stores, village officials announced this week.

Two development companies, one from suburban Detroit and one from Tampa, have formed Evergreen Park Developers, which plans to build the Evergreen Park Marketplace. Stores would be built along the west side of the property, facing Western Avenue, with four outlots intended for restaurants, according to the developer.

"We are a huge step closer to getting the Evergreen Plaza demolished and rebuilt," Mayor Jim Sexton said during Monday's night's village board meeting, where the plans were unveiled. "I know you may have heard some of that before, and I won't take 'no' for an answer.

"We're going to get this done. We have assembled a very good group of people to work together," Sexton said. "They have the finances together to get this particular job done. We've been on the cusp of getting this thing done (before), and it's finally right at our fingertips."

What would you like to see at the site of the old Evergreen Plaza or soon to become the Evergreen Park Marketplace?