With Kmart closed, Dunham’s moves closer to opening
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
While the Burlington Kmart store closed for good Sunday, the next generation of anchor store for the Fox River Plaza in Burlington was making strides forward.
Kmart was for the most part empty last week during the final days of its clearance sale, with only small departmental inventories remaining. The signs at the store also said no other merchandise would be coming in, and that all sales were final.
The managerial staff at Kmart declined to comment last week.
However, while the big box store was nearing its finale, about 100 yards to the east, Dunham’s Sports was starting to make in-roads on eventually opening in the former location of Pick ’n Save.
The storefront has been taken down and reconstructed, and the insides of the building have been gutted and replaced.
Burlington Mayor Bob Miller said last week that store officials originally wanted to be in the new facility around Thanksgiving, but he didn’t know whether that would happen.
“My hunch is if they’re not open at least two weeks before Christmas, they’ll wait until January sometime,” Miller said.
City Administrator Kevin Lahner said it was his understanding that store officials hoped to open at some point in December.
Change has been a constant at the shopping center in recent months. Not even the name of the owner of the shopping center has stayed the same. In September, Brixmor Properties acquired Centro Properties, the long-time owner of the strip mall on Milwaukee Avenue.
The name change followed Centro being acquired by an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners in June.
Brixmor is the second-largest owner of community and neighborhood shopping centers in the United States, according to a press release on the company’s website.
The company announced in August that it had reached a lease agreement with Dunham’s. That announcement came shortly after the news broke that Kmart would be closing.
At the time, Miller said that the plaza needed to have at least one of the two anchor storefronts filled.
“A strip mall like that needs a big box there to anchor it,” Miller explained. “Hopefully with Dunham’s coming in, Centro will have a better chance at renting the Kmart property.”
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