Rockford aldermen push back on plans for Kmart redevelopment with self-storage

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Several aldermen are pushing back against plans to redevelop a shuttered Kmart on East State Street with an indoor self-storage facility.

U-Haul, which owns the property, and developer Orput Companies want to bring self-storage to the nearly 106,000-square-foot former retailer at 5909 E. State St. as part of a revamp of the nearly 15-acre corner property. Other work would include renovating a vacant KFC, adding sidewalks and green space, and building three new structures for restaurants and retail.

“This is a prime retail location in the city of Rockford and we would be, I believe, waving the white flag and saying that we are relegating State Street west of Mulford to a future as second-rate retail,” Alderman Mark Bonne, who represents the 14th Ward where the property is located, said of permitting self-storage.

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Bonne’s comments were made Tuesday night before the city’s Code and Regulation Committee, which discussed the proposal for more than an hour. The proposal requires a special-use permit in order for a self-storage facility and drive-thru restaurants to operate in this commercially zoned area.

That committee ultimately voted 3-1 against the proposal. Aldermen Isidro Barrios, Gina Meeks and Bonne voted against. Alderwoman Gabrielle Torina voted in favor, saying that the retail landscape is changing.

“Sometimes we can get into a fantasy of what that space is supposed to be,” she said. “Are people really building big box anymore when so much is going to online? Maybe five, 10 years ago we wanted another Walmart or another big store there, but the reality is that so many of the major stores are closing.”

This won’t be the last time the proposal is discussed by City Council. City officials said Wednesday that the matter will move forward to the full City Council with a negative recommendation.

It’s a discussion that wasn’t expected to happen Tuesday. City legal and administrative staff had asked council members to delay a vote on the proposal so they could continue negotiating a redevelopment agreement with U-Haul and Orput. However, in a split vote, aldermen on the committee decided to proceed with the discussion and vote anyway.

Those against the concept raised issue with potential oversaturation of storage facilities and the need to capitalize on an important retail corridor with the best possible commercial use.

“We have to protect every square foot we have,” said Alderman Frank Beach, who is not a voting member of the committee but participated in the discussion. “We need to make the maximum revenue possible on every square foot we have on that main corridor.”

Proponents say that while self-storage is not ideal, the proposal presents the best opportunity to bring new life to a property that’s been vacant since September 2018. That’s when Kmart closed as part of a string of closures across the country.

The proposal was brought to the council committee with support of city staff and the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, which heard the matter last week.

“It would vastly improve an area that’s just a sea of asphalt right now,” said Scott Capovilla, the city’s planning and zoning manager. “It would help alleviate the flooding, it would address our pedestrian needs along Mulford Road and East State Street, it would increase the green space, and it would provide some new retail development of a significant size for the outlots both on Mulford and East State Street.”

U-Haul previously approached about self-storage at the former Magna site, and another developer had pitched self-storage for the former American TV, which is now Gustafson’s Furniture and Mattress, Capovilla said. Alderwoman Gina Meeks said self-storage was pitched for the former Hilander/Schnucks property on North Main Street in her ward.

This site is different because it presents the potential for additional retail and restaurant development along the front of the roads, Capovilla said.

“I’m not really thrilled with self-storage,” Capovilla said. “It seems to be one of those things that potentially is going to become very saturated in the future, but in this case it makes the most sense, especially with the East State frontage and a little frontage on Mulford as well.”

Bonne noted that an objector at the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing last week stated that the property sat vacant for six years as part of a “deliberate strategy to inspire desperation on the council to approve this.”

“I wanted to try to convince myself to like this proposal, again because it is a bird in the hand, but I really have to agree with that,” Bonne said.

The plan calls for redeveloping the 2,800-square-foot vacant KFC and Long John Silver’s at 5949 E. State St. for a new restaurant use. In addition, a roughly 6,500-square-foot multitenant building would be constructed next to the former KFC. To the east of that would be a 2,100-square-foot quick-service restaurant with a drive-thru and along South Mulford Road would be a new a roughly 6,500-square-foot multitenant property built south of Connexus Credit Union.

The developer would also add sidewalks along State Street and Mulford Road and provide fencing and landscaping to obscure the view of the U-Haul trucks parked on the southeast side of the building.

There would also be a stormwater detention and green space area intended to help control flooding issues that have plagued nearby Anderson Automotive as stormwater rushing off the large swath of asphalt on the Kmart site.

City Council Members next meet on Monday.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas