HAMMOND | Talks between the city and a developer who wants to build a new retail complex and multiscreen movie house on the city's far south side will continue for at least another month.

Details of George Markopoulos' plan to renovate the former Interstate Plaza in the 7800 block of Indianapolis Boulevard are still being finalized, and the Plan Commission on Monday night accepted a request by his attorneys to postpone any decision on the project until September.

The development plan calls for demolishing the long-vacant former Builders Square store at the 25-acre site, remodeling the 110,000-square-foot former Kmart into mixed retail space and constructing at least three restaurants along with a 12-screen cinema.

"It's a complex project," said Nicholas Chulos, an attorney with Schererville law firm Krieg DeVault, which represents Markopoulos' Blue Light Holdings LLC, owner of the property just south of the Borman Expressway.

Commissioners must approve the project's site plan -- which includes reconfigured parking areas and access roads, as well as the placement of any new buildings -- before any construction can begin.

Because the eastern part of the property is in a flood plain, proposed new structures along Indianapolis Boulevard can't be built at all until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finishes the adjacent segment of its levee along the Little Calumet River later this year.

Markopoulos, whose Northbrook, Ill.-based Praedium Development Corp. owns the former Woodmar Mall property just two miles to the north, has estimated the new complex would involve $20 million to $23 million in investment, and create as many as 150 permanent full-time jobs.

The 19 zoning variances required for the planned project are scheduled to be considered by the city's Board of Zoning Appeals next week.