In a declining year for shopping center development, New Lenox had one bright spot throughout the Chicagoland area in 2010. 

According to a Crain's Chicago Business report, 2010 had the lowest number of square footage constructed for shopping center developments since 1983. The 1.2 million square feet was a 31 percent drop from 2009, and the drop could reach 90 percent from the records high set in 2007.

"Last year was a year shopping center developers will want to forget," says Lisa Leiter in the Chicago Business Today video. "And this year is looking even worse."

However, Leiter says some notable projects completed in 2010 include three 150,000-square-foot CostCo stores, but also the New Lenox Town Center, anchored by the Walmart that opened late in October. Other stores are already beginning to fill the lots at the Town Center, and village leaders expect more to come in 2011.