First, they refused to sell out to a bigger business that wanted to replace them.
Next, some of them filed lawsuits, challenging the idea that their shopping center was blighted and needed to be torn down.
They won a big battle with a giant developer and a village, and they now have some hope for survival.
Maybe.
They are tenants of the International Plaza Shopping Center at Golf and Arlington Hts. roads in Arlington Hts. They turned the village's quest to redevelop the 35-acre site into an adversarial contest between a major developer and small businesses that felt unjustly accused when told that their enterprises were run down and expendable.
They won a big victory, and the village now is talking about the possibility of working with the plaza to create a new plan for the area, instead of talking about razing it in favor of a giant department store.
Village trustees formally voted Monday (May 7) to terminate a redevelopment agreement with Target that would have replaced the plaza with a 174,000-square-foot Target store and several other new stores. Afterward, both Mayor Arlene Mulder and Charles Witherington-Perkins, community development director, reportedly talked about a "new approach" for the site, which also includes an abandoned gas station and the Arlin-Golf Plaza in addition to International Plaza.
In fact, Perkins at one point said that the top priority in future negotiations with new developers will focus on Arlin-Golf and the gas station location, rather than the International Plaza.
Village officials said the termination was a mutual decision between them and Target because of the lawsuits, the lapse of time, increased costs, and changing economic conditions. The village declared the area blighted in 2002 and designated it as a tax increment financing (TIF) district in order to attract developers. The deal with Target was signed in 2005, but it quickly got bogged down in controversy and lawsuits by several tenant businesses.
Target couldn't reach agreement with property owners to buy properties needed for their store. The redevelopment agreement called for the village to step in and use eminent domain to acquire the properties.
Last fall, the village voted to delay eminent domain proceedings because of the lawsuits. A Cook County judge ruled in favor of the village on one aspect of one lawsuit in January, but other litigation still is pending in the courts. The owner of International Plaza said the suits will continue to be pursued.
Changes will eventually come to this area, but they probably won't include big-box department stores.