Gurnee Mills will soon have one less vacancy after the Gurnee Village Board voted Monday to approve an agreement to renovate vacant tenant space.

“We’ve got an opportunity to fill the rest of the space of the former Sears Grand store,” Village Administrator Patrick Muetz said.

Muetz said that the improvements are estimated to cost $12 million, with Simon Property Group, the company that owns and operates Gurnee Mills, contributing $6 million, and the business that will occupy the space contributing $6 million.

Simon Property Group has requested that the village contribute up to $2 million.

The former Sears site is currently occupied by Round 1 and Hobby Lobby, but still has approximately 66,000 square feet of vacant space, which has sat empty since Sears closed in 2018.

Before the meeting, the Village Board held a public hearing, where they heard from Jocelyn Gubler, the vice president of development at Simon Property Group, about plans for the vacant space.

“As department stores fall by the wayside, and as boxes sit empty, we at Gurnee Mills have been fortunate to be able to fill those, and this is one of our last remaining boxes,” she said.

Gubler said she couldn’t yet announce what store will be occupying the space, but said that it is a “popular, budget-friendly, home goods retailer.”

“This retailer has been launching smaller format stores, as a complement to its larger standard-size, warehouse-type of environment that’s in 27 states and territories in the U.S.,” she said. “[One] of these stores just opened in San Marcos, Texas, earlier this year.”

While Gubler didn’t specify what store would be moving into the space, a smaller-scale IKEA opened in San Marcos, Texas, in July. During the public hearing, she also said that the company began in 1943 as a mail-order company, which IKEA did.

In an email with the News Sun, Gurnee Economic Development Director Ellen Dean said that she could not confirm if the vacancy will be filled by IKEA.

“Sears Grand was something very different back in the day,” Gubler said. “It was over 100,000 square feet of retail that was very successful for many, many years. That’s a hard size to fill. We have Hobby Lobby and Round 1 that have taken parts of it, and we have this last piece left.”

According to Muetz, the business will have a 17,000-square-foot showroom, a 20,000-square-foot market hall, selling “pick-up goods, and food items,” and a 4,000-square-foot fast casual dining operation.

“They’re looking to get going on this shortly after the new year, as far as construction,” he said.

The village is entering a six-year agreement, in which it would be responsible for contributing a maximum of $2 million to the project.

During the first four years of the agreement, the village would contribute $250,000 per year to the project. During years three and four, the village would also start rebating the sales tax that it receives from the mall, up to a maximum of $1 million.

“During that six-year period, the village will net about $900,000, so it’s a big sales-tax generator,” Muetz said.

Dean said that if the project does not cost $6 million, the village’s contribution would get reduced “proportionally.” She added that the village’s contribution would not exceed “a third overall, $2 million on $6 million.”

“This is over a half of a million dollar sales tax generator to the village of Gurnee,” Dean said. “We’re anticipating half a million dollars, or more, per year. A lot of upside for the village.”

The agreement was unanimously approved by the board, whose members spoke about how happy they were to have the retailer take over the vacant space in the mall.

“This is something that is meant for Gurnee,” Village Trustee Karen Thorstenson said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/02/gurnee-mills-new-store/