City of West Frankfort to Buy Outlet Mall

West Frankfort city officials have contracted to purchase the Factory Outlet Store of America mall on the city's west side from its California-based owner.

A deal was signed last week according to reporting by the new Frankfort American, a twice-weekly newspaper sponsored by Morthland College that's only in its fifth issue.

The city has 60 days to review the building and terms before closing on the deal, details of which have not been released. Officials including Mayor Tom Jordan has spent the last two months negotiating the deal for the 25-year-old mall.

Colliers International has been marketing the outlet mall with a sales price of $2,050,000. The building has 91,063 sq. ft. of leasable area which gives it an asking price of $22.51/sq. ft.

The mall is about two-thirds rented and anchored by VF Outlet.

The paper reports that the city hopes to keep the existing retail stores inside and add other retailers or business that wouldn't interfere with retail. Following the success of their industrial incubator building they hope to continue that model to add more retail development both inside the mall as well as development of the entire 20-acre tract will the mall sits.

The mall is owned by DeSantis Properties of Fresno, California, which did not respond to calls by the paper.

Ironically and historically, there's a tie between the DeSantis name (but certainly not the company in this case) and the city. In 1920, a seriously deranged Sicilian named Settimi DeSantis and another man killed two teen boys in some woods south of Royalton, across the county line in Williamson County.

The killings, believed by the public to have been the work of the Black Hand, led to the West Frankfort Race Riot which targeted Italians living in the city. It took the National Guard to restore order. Williamson County prosecuted both men for murder. DeSantis' accomplice hung himself during the trial in the county jail (now the Williamson County Jail Museum). The jury found DeSantis guilty and hung him on a vacant lot on the east side of the square behind what's now John Brown's on the Square.

Hat tip to Jeff Webb, a former staffer of the old West Frankfort Daily American and a photographer with the new paper. He stopped by to talk to me yesterday at my Giant City Lodge book signing and told me about the story and the publication.

He also pointed me toward the new Main Street Baking Co. & Mercantile at 328 E. Main St. in West Frankfort. Of this afternoon it's now carrying books published and distributed by IllinoisHistory.com.

Besides rolling in the dough with loaves of fresh bread and sandwiches they offer everything your sweet tooth desires, except donuts. For that they will point you down the street.

That's Owner Darla Dawson on the right and her manager, Esther Willis, on the left. The Benton Evening News had a nice profile piece on Darla earlier this summer.

Progress Made Toward Little Egypt Oasis

The drive to develop the Little Egypt Oasis on top of Interstate 57 at West Frankfort continues through the planning and engineering phases.

Overpass owner and developer Scott Williams sent out an update earlier this week. On Monday he met with representatives of both the Illinois Department of Transportation as well as the Federal High Administration. The meeting "went well," he reported.

The preliminary engineering findings and drawings for the Access Justification Report (AJR) were reviewed. This was the first meeting that included FHWA and was a big step forward in the process. As each segment of the AJR is created it will be submitted for comments and when the complete AJR is created it will be submitted to FHWA for conceptual approval.

The conceptual approval, if all goes well, will take about 4 to 6 months and the study that will follow will take 12 to 18 months. So the project is moving forward but still has a long way to go.

The moves comes after the initial kickoff meeting for the Access Justification Report last November.

The Little Egypt Oasis would make major changes in the interstate interchange and open up hundreds of acres for development. The key point of the plan would include using the railroad overpass as the site of the main development. An early stage would be building of a truck stop on the west side of the highway.

West Frankfort Considers Little Egypt Oasis Development

West Frankfort Mayor Tom Jordan joins area developer Scott Williams in the latest video about the Little Egypt Oasis proposal to split the Exit 65 interchange on Interstate 57.

Williams owns the old Burlington Railroad bridge over the interstate and wants to make it a new centerpiece for development on the west side of the city.

The plan would move the south ramps at Exit 65 south past the bridge to what's known as North Road. There the ramps would connect to two one-way frontage roads on either side of the interstate that would run north to Main Street and the existing interstate ramps to the north.

The current ramps on the south side of Exit 65 are shorter than desired even by 1960s standards for interstate highway construction. The problem then was the presence of the massive railroad bridge.

With the planned widening of the interstate to six lanes during the next decade the railroad bridge's presence will only increase the safety issues, unless as Williams points out, the state splits the exit and moves the south ramps south of the railroad bridge.

That move would not only open up hundreds of acres for new commercial development, but would also allow the development of a southwest bypass or Burlington Boulevard along the old railroad grade connecting Route 37 on the south side of Frankfort to Route 149 west of Kmart.

Wiliams has been working on this for a few years now. The pyramid part of his project over the interstate would also create a huge gateway to Southern Illinois for southbound tourists entering the region.

New Mayors for C'dale, H'burg and P'ville

Cities play an important role in tourism in Southern Illinois and while tourism never plays a key role in city races whoever wins those races tend to play an important role in tourism, even if just indirectly.

Marion voters re-elected Mayor Bob Butler to a 13th term in a three-way race with 58 percent of the vote. Ironically, prior to the Millennium Development project Butler was actually contemplating retirement.

In Franklin County, voters kept incumbent Mayor Gary Kraft and the entire city council in Benton. Among his other points Kraft was one of the organizers and a key volunteer in developing the Franklin County Jail Museum. Down the road in West Frankfort, voters gave Tom Jordan his own four-year term as mayor following his appointment last year first as finance commissioner and then stepping up as mayor when Marion Presley died.

Over in Perry County voters weren't so satisfied. DuQuoin voters barely returned John Rednour as mayor in what appears to be the closest race in the region. He defeated a strong challenge by Guy Alongi by just 16 votes. To the northwest in Pinckneyville voters replaced incumbent Mayor Joe Holder with Finance Commissioner August Kellerman in a four-way race.

In Carbondale, Joel Fritzler who came in third in the primary surged ahead and took the lead in today's general election to succeed Brad Cole who didn't run and has taken a job on the staff of U.S. Senator Mark Kirk.

Last but not least, former Saline County Board Chairman and state representative candidate Eric Gregg won an open five-way race for mayor of Harrisburg. In Eldorado incumbent Mayor Rocky James easily defeated his challenger.

In another race that will impact tourism challengers swept out four incumbents in the Marion Unit 2 District school board race. What that means for the administration is unknown, but it's expected that the district will now be dropping its ridiculous lawsuit over the Williamson County Pavilion and whether or not the non-profit corporation that operates the city-owned property should be paying property taxes.

Forby Endorses Oasis Plan for West Frankfort

State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, endorsed the Little Egypt Oasis proposal yesterday in West Frankfort, according to the Daily American.

"It's our time" he's quoted as saying in the online headline.

The proposal by local businessman Scott Williams would develop the Little Egypt Oasis on the the Burlington-Northern railroad bridge over Interstate 57, immediately south of Route 149.

The bridge is privately-owned and offers development potential. The project also calls for a new road to be built connecting Routes 37 and 149 along the old railroad right-of-way which would create a southwest bypass for area residents.

Currently the presence of the railroad bridge abutments blocks visibility for the northbound exit ramp off of the interstate which has long been blamed for a series of traffic wrecks at the site — "blood on the pavement" as highway planners would note.

With the planned expansion of I-57 to six lanes between I-64 and I-24, the problem becomes even more severe. The Illinois Department of Transportation can either remove the bridge which is no longer needed for the railroad or move the ramps.

Initially they planned to remove the bridge until they discovered the state didn't own it. Buying it would immediately raise the price of the project by millions as it cost $1 million 50 years ago when the interstate was under construction. Today's price would be significantly higher.

Now, IDOT officials are open to Plan B suggested by Williams. Basically, this would split the existing diamond-shaped interchange at Exit 65 and move the two ramps on the south side, farther south to North Road, the next road south of the bridge about a 1.5 miles from Rt. 149. Then, one-way access roads would link the two sets of ramps.

It would be similar to the ramps and access roads in Paducah where you get off at one exit, and then go down the access road until you get to the road for the hospital or Whitehaven, the historic site that houses the visitors center.

I admit even before I heard the details of Williams' plan I was in favor. I love the idea of taking a long unused asset like the bridge and making it into something that generates economic development. We've got a lot of unused assets in Southern Illinois that just need some creative thinking applied.

I'll talk about the details in another post as it's got great potential to not only create a new tourist site in the region, but also help promote all the others.