Attention shoppers ? warm up your credit cards because next year Kohl’s department store is coming to Oxford.
‘They’d like to get it open in ?09 if they can,? said Joe Kosik, Jr., of the Bloomfield Hills-based JFK Investment Co., which owns the land Kohl’s is going to build on. ‘I would guess they have a five or six-month construction schedule.?
Last week, the Oxford Township Board voted 5-2 to grant final Planned Unit Development (PUD) approval to the Oxford North Shopping Center with conditions.
‘We should be over the major hurdles at this point,? Kosik said. ‘The last hurdle we’ve got is we’re repricing out the whole project. As long as the new costs, with the way things have gone up, don’t exceed Kohl’s requirements, we’re okay.?
Located on a 25-acre parcel on the east side of M-24, just north of the village and south of E. Market St., the 178,214-square-foot shopping center will include a 97,423-square-foot Kohl’s as the anchor on its southern end and six other retail buildings.
‘Tentatively, we’re hoping to have all the permits in hand we need by fall and maybe in October be able to do some land balancing and some underground work (i.e. installing water and sewer lines),? said Kosik, who’s developing the new center.
‘We’re shooting for March 1 to really hit the ground running and build this thing next year,? Kosik explained. ‘I’m going to build part of mine and Kohl’s wants to build theirs. That’s tentative at this point.?
Aside from Kohl’s, which will own its building and eventually eight or nine acres of land, there are currently no tenants for the portion of the shopping center Kosik will own. ‘This (approval process) took so long that the original tenants I had are gone,? Kosik said. ‘I couldn’t sign people until we got something done with the township.?
The conceptual site plan was first presented to the planning commission during a Feb. 9, 2006 pre-application conference. Since then, the center has lost its major anchor tenant on the north end, Tractor Supply Co.
Kosik is currently shopping for tenants. He tentatively plans to construct the two outlot buildings first. Each one’s approximately 5,000-square feet.
Kosik said he’s got some smaller clients who ‘have expressed interest? and he’s working on getting them ‘inked.?
The shopping center’s next big hurdle is obtaining the permit from the Michigan Department of Transportation to construct the necessary improvements to M-24.
These improvements include installing a traffic signal in front of the shopping center’s main entrance to regulate the flow of northbound traffic on M-24 and reconfiguring the median to include three new turnarounds including one going directly into Kosik’s center.
Kosik’s hoping to get approval from MDOT ‘before the year’s out.?
‘My guess is the MDOT improvements wouldn’t be built till spring, so I’ve got to get all the permits and make them happy,? he said. ‘The big part there is it just takes them a long time to review and turn things around.?
As part of its May 22 approval of the shopping center, planning commissioners made it a condition that the M-24 improvements be completed prior to the township issuing a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy ‘for any and all structures.?