Oak Park’s village board unanimously supported a measure giving tax relief to the owner of the long vacant former department store that will soon be home to Barnes & Noble’s new Downtown Oak Park bookstore.
The commercial portion of the building — the former Marshall Field and Company department store site at 1144 Lake St. on the northeast corner of Lake Street and Harlem Avenue — has sat vacant for well over a decade. Its last tenant that produced sales tax revenue was a Borders bookstore location, which closed in 2011 when the company went under.
Village leaders say the incentive will help get the building back to productive use and “eliminate a blighted property at the gateway to Oak Park,” said John Melaniphy, Oak Park’s assistant village manager for economic vitality. Trustee Chibuike Enyia said 1144 Lake St. is a special building, and that the bookseller’s plans for the property evoke some of the “magic” of historic Oak Park.
“That building is one of the parts that I think is so unique and cool to Downtown Oak Park,” Enyia said. “I was looking over this and feeling like a kid again, looking inside the building and seeing the beauty of it.’
The near century old building is owned by the entity 1144 Lake Street LLC which is run by Nicholas Karris, according to state business records.
The village’s board of trustees voted to lend support to Karris’ application for Class L status, a Cook County designation that lowers property taxes for landowners rehabilitating historic landmark properties. The status provides property owners with a steep tax break for more than a decade, as the Class L status is expected to save the landlord over $550,000 in taxes over the 12-year life of the incentive, according to the village.
Property owners need approval from the municipal government their property is located in to receive the incentive.
“The redevelopment of this landmark building in the Downtown Oak Park business district will bring a new nationally recognized bookstore to the district and expand the village’s trade area for miles outside the village,” village staff wrote in supporting documents for the proposal. “The Village Manager’s Office, Office of Economic Vitality, Development Services, Neighborhood Services, Finance Department, and the Law Department have all been working together to assist with the revitalization of this property. The new bookstore will create cross-shopping opportunities for other retailers, restaurants, and services in Oak Park.”
To qualify for the incentive, the property owner’s investment must surpass 50% of the building’s 2024 assessed market value of around $3.554 million. Landlord sponsored renovations include a new HVAC system, concrete repairs and elevator improvements are expected to cost $3.541 million, according to the village.
Barnes & Noble is also contributing $2 million to the buildout, according to the village.
To support the property owner’s application, the board also voted to officially designate the building as an Oak Park landmark, with village documents citing the building’s unique Art Deco architectural features. The village’s volunteer Historic Preservation Commission had previously voted to support both Class L status and the landmark designation for 1144 Lake St.
The building has had a set of structural issues that have made it difficult for new businesses to make the two levels of commercial space productive. That makes economic incentives necessary to support the building’s rehabilitation, Melaniphy said.
The village’s board of trustees came close to voting on a sales tax incentive package at its Aug. 5 meeting that would’ve seen the village rebate 50% of the sales tax revenue it received from sales at the Barnes & Noble location back to the building owner. Karris is no longer seeking that sort of incentive, according to the village.
The village had previously worked on a sales tax incentive package to help convert the space into a Dom’s Kitchen & Market grocery store location, but that deal went fell apart in 2022 before the company closed all its locations in 2024.
The bookstore is expected to open in the summer of 2026 as a 25,000 foot two story store with a cafe, company leadership told Wednesday Journal earlier this year. The Oak Park location is expected to employ 60 people and provide more than $100,000 in annual sales tax revenue for Oak Park, according to the village.
Multiple small bookstores have also opened in the vicinity of Downtown Oak Park in recent years, including the Book Loft which opened at 1047 Lake St. this past August. Prior to voting for the incentives, Trustees Enyia and Jenna Leving Jacobson both mentioned that while the village must do what it can to make sure 1144 Lake St. comes back to life, the village can’t “forget” about its smaller bookstores.
“I do want to make sure how we can support and incentivize investments in those locally owned shops as well,” Leving Jacobson said. “There’s never enough books.”
