It’s official – employees of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency are clearing out their desks and moving into the new location inside the White Oaks Mall.

In an email confirmation with Capital Development Board Public Information Officer Lauren Grenlund, the transition to the new facility is in progress and will be over the next few months.

The price tag to move into the mall is hefty – around $430 per square-foot according to Grenlund for the 186,000-square-foot space. In total $80 million over the last four years has gone into the project run by the CDB, which oversees state construction projects. 

The construction project, originally set to finish last year in July, took longer to finish due to unidentified issues at purchase.

Grenlund said the cost encompasses the project which underwent a competitive bidding process for design and construction inside the old Sears Center, which went out of business in 2018. 

The center was chosen instead of a downtown location, as the Central Management Services and CDB evaluated existing state-owned and leased properties in the county before settling on the locale inside the White Oaks Mall. The state purchased the Sears building in 2020 for $3.5 million.

A deciding factor was the floor plan inside the Sears, as well as the extensive parking lot outside.

“The open floor plan of Sears allowed for a more flexible and efficient layout of office spaces and cubicles to meet the agency’s needs.”

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In response to the movement of 559 EPA employees, the food court inside the mall is adapting to cater to its new, stable customer base. Just this July, 710 Rippy G’s Chicago style & Soul Food opened up shop inside the food court while Pinoy Pride, a Filipino restaurant, opened this month with full breakfast to dinner menus.

Eventually, once the EPA, Department of Innovation and Technology and Illinois Pollution Control Board move into the mall officially through the next several months, the current EPA location at 1021 N. Grand Ave. E. will be demolished to make room for railroad improvements.

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted