Logan Square’s Discount Mega Mall may be redeveloped after Terraco Real Estate Development and Management submitted a proposal to bring a large grocery store, fitness center and other small retail stores to the commercial space. 

Discount Mega Mall, located at  2500 N. Milwaukee Ave., is currently a 130,680 square-foot indoor  flea market that sells clothing, jewelry, cell phones and a variety of other goods for low prices. 

Despite the large square footage the building offers, not all of the space is being used. 

Scott Gendell, president and CEO of Terraco, said the real estate firm is currently under contract with Discount Mega Mall, and they are proposing the idea of a new “mega-center” called Logan’s Crossing.

Terraco is in its due diligence period with Discount Mega Mall, which is a comprehensive appraisal to evaluate the assets, liabilities and commercial potential for the space. They began the entire proposal and idea process in June.

“We’re going through an analysis of whether or not this property is feasible for our property intended,” Gendell said. 

The mall has been proposed as a total ground-up redevelopment. This means comprehensive planning is needed.

“It will become the epicenter of Logan Square,” Gendell said.

Logan Square does not have any large commercial grocery stores. The closest store where residents can buy groceries

 is Target in Bucktown, a neighboring community of Logan Square, which is approximately a 25-minute walk from Mega Mall. 

“It’d be really nice to have a grocery store not too far away,” said Noah Kittelson, a Logan Square resident. “Target [is] nice, but it’s a big kind of chain. You really can’t have too many grocery stores.” 

The redevelopment of Logan Square is a recurring theme this year, as many real estate companies are proposing ideas to better the neighborhood, such as the controversial redevelopment of the Milshire Hotel, 2525 N. Milwaukee Ave., the renovation of the Damen and California Blue Line stops and the addition of an apartment complex located across from the post office on California and Milwaukee.

“There’s definitely a lot of new things coming in, which is really nice,” Kittelson said. “There is some updating that needs to happen to certain areas.”

Some residents are excited to see whether plans follow through, but a large number of residents are opposed to the new  projects because they do not want to see any change.

“There [are] a lot of local things that were here before, and you wouldn’t want to see them all squashed out,” said Michael McGovern, a Logan Square resident.

A town hall meeting held Aug. 27 gave citizens the opportunity to vote on a residential development in the works.

The number of people that showed up to vote against the new apartment complex was so large, it was forced to relocate from its usual location to Haas Park Field House gymnasium, according to Logan No to SRO.

“It’s like that facile gentrification that you see everywhere,” McGovern said. “I guess it’s like capitalism in redevelopment. It would be really sad [to demolish Discount Mega Mall]. The idea of organizing more things into these mega-complexes is against the ethos of

this neighborhood.” 

Terraco said Logan Crossing’s development ideas are still very preliminary, and a finalized plan will not be seen for a couple of years from now; however, the mall is planned to span out from 2464 N. Milwaukee Ave. to 2534

N. Milwaukee Ave.

“A process like this takes a year for zoning and another year for construction,” Gendell said.