The Bloomington City Council approved the preliminary and final plat for Southtown Shopping Center at its July 20 meeting. That is the plat Kraus-Anderson, Inc. requested to divide its property at 7803 Penn Ave S into 4 lots. The public record found so far doesn't give the vote count or list any conditions the council attached.
The application, case number PL202600112, asked for a Type II Preliminary and Final Plat to turn a single lot into 4. The city posted its notice of the public hearing on July 9. Splitting a big retail parcel like this usually means the owner is getting it ready for separate ownership or separate ground leases. That kind of step tends to come before new buildings go up on a redeveloped site.
Here's how we got here. Southtown opened in November 1960 at the corner of Interstate 494 and Penn Avenue South. Its anchor was a 2-story Montgomery Wards that, at 150,000 square feet, was the largest of the chain's 550 stores. The center has been renovated many times since. In early 2024, Kraus-Anderson began tearing down the former Toys 'R' Us and Herberger's buildings on the northeast side of the center, which started life as that Montgomery Wards.
The city later approved a plan for that corner: a 2-level Dick's House of Sport next to the existing Kohl's and an 18,000-square-foot outdoor athletic field on the north side along I-494. A 4-story medical office building is planned for a later phase. The plan also calls for rebuilding parking lots and adding landscaping, lighting, and sidewalks along Knox Avenue, including a path to the Orange Line bus rapid transit tunnel. One catch for later phases: the area's sanitary sewer capacity has to be upgraded before more can be built.
Kraus-Anderson hasn't stopped tweaking the plans. In June, it filed a separate application, PL202600111, asking for a minor revision to the approved Dick's House of Sport site plan at 7803 Penn Ave. That came after a May 7 Planning Commission hearing on sign variances for the same address. Those variances would let a freestanding pylon sign grow from 200 to 245 square feet and sit 10 feet from the property line instead of 20.
Nothing else about the plat is scheduled. The new lot lines are approved, and what gets built on each lot will show up in future applications as the Southtown makeover continues.
