Homewood Officials Have 'No Doubt' New Retailer Can Fill Walmart Space

HOMEWOOD, IL — Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld is pushing back against claims that the village’s Walmart store was not meeting financial expectations before it was announced last week that the location will close next month. But as the village prepares to bid farewell to the big-box retasiler, officials have "no doubt" the village will have no trouble finding a new business to move into the space the retailer leaves behind.

Employees at the store, located at 17550 South Halsted St., were informed last week that the store would be closing on March 10. In a lengthy statement issued this week, Hofeld said that the village was informed shortly after about Walmart’s decision to shutter the Homewood store and said there had been no prior communication from the retailer that the location was under consideration to be closed.

Hofeld, who declined an interview request through a spokesperson on Friday, said in the statement that like many corporations, Walmart makes decisions based on metrics. He said that in “productive meetings” with store managers at the location, there was no mention that the store was not meeting the financial goals set forth by Walmart corporate officials.

As he stated last week when the initial announcement that the village was caught off-guard by the closure.

“It would have been courteous to have had more advance notice of the possibility of the store’s closing,” the mayor wrote this week.

Walmart represents one of Homewood’s largest sales tax dollar producers, the mayor said in the statement issued earlier this week. Unlike the Illinois Department of Revenue, the mayor continued, the village is not privy to profit and operating standards but always believed the store to be “an excellent revenue producer.”

A Walmart spokesperson told the village in the notice of the closure that the retailer was unable to provide a clear and qualitative reason for the closure but added that the store had not performed as well as the retailer had hoped when it opened.

This week, Hofeld wrote that the village will recalculate its upcoming budget to address the loss of revenue generated by the store. However, he said that he and other Homewood officials believe the retail space left behind by the store’s closure will be “in demand” for other retail sales tax-producing opportunities.

“All of the developers I spoke to were surprised and, quite frankly, at a loss as to why Walmart would suddenly close this particular location, Hofeld wrote. “Developers intuitively have a ‘feel’ for Walmart’s operating numbers and were astonished that Walmart would close this particular store. They instinctively mentioned the casino development less than a quarter mile away. The majority of these developers are interested in and will be pursuing uses for this site.”

In an email sent to Patch on Friday, Homewood Village Manager Napoleon Haney said that despite Walmart being one of the village's top sales tax revenue-generating businesses, it is anticipated that Homewood will be able to absorb this temporary revenue loss without needing to dip into its reserve funds.

He said that the village believed that Walmart had more than 12 years remaining on its lease of a building that is owned by Agree Realty Corp. However, as Hofeld wrote, he has every assurance village officials will be able to fill the Walmart space although it won't be "an overnight process."

Haney's confidence comes from the fact that he says Homewood has a proven reputation for attracting and securing quality commercial, light industrial, residential, and retail developments that serve as amenities for our residents and surrounding communities.

Walmart employees of the Homewood store were told last week that they will be able to transfer to one of the six Walmart stores that are within 20 miles of Homewood, including three locations that are within a seven-mile radius of the Halsted Street location. Haney said that once the Walmart store closes next month, the village will encourage residents to shop at other retailers along the Halsted Street corridor while a replacement is sought.

While the village remains upset by the surprise nature of the closure announcement, Hofeld wrote this week that the village is prepared to move on without Walmart.

“It’s never good for any community to lose a large sales tax producer like Walmart,”Hofeld wrote. “However, based upon my conversations with developers, interest in the site is high and I have no doubt that we will soon be hearing from quite a few others with potential plans and ideas to fill this vacancy.”