Comments on: Forest Park Mall; Forest Park, Illinois

By: Bob Clover

Bob Clover — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:29:04 +0000

@SEAN,
Another one is the Owensboro (KY) Christian Church, which replaced a Woolco store in Lincoln Mall mini-mall; along with the rest of the mall.

http://www.stickymap.com/mappage?m=10492&t=Owensboro Christian Church

By: James

James — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:19:05 +0000

Switching topics a bit…all of the documentation on Labelscar about the decline of suburban malls- in both pre- and post- WWII suburbs- is interesting, but I believe the real news is the decline of the downtown malls. You know, those “vertical” malls built in one city after another in the 1990s, often with public subsidies, heralded as the sure-fire way to revive downtown retailing.

In Cleveland, the Galleria opened with much fanfare in the late 1980s, thrived for a decade or so, and now is little more than a food court & shelter from the blustery winds at East 9th & Lakeside. Also in Cleveland, a few years after the Galleria opened, the massive 4-story Tower City mall was retrofitted into the bowels of Cleveland’s Terminal Tower. The opening of Tower City for a time seemed to promise an entirely new image for the unfairly slammed Clevelend- with a Barney’s New York, a Gucci, a Fiorucci, etc. With the early 90s recession, the loss of a department store anchor and other factors, the shine didn’t last long, and Tower City has devolved into a mall with a distinctlively “urban” vibe, multiple vacancies, wig shops and all. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is just not the retail star that it once promised to be.

There are similar downtown mall stories in St. Louis and other cities.

Closer to home, in Chicago, even that iconic retailing street, Michigan Avenue, is now dealing with the vertical mall blues. There are four vertical malls on Michigan. The newest, the one attached to Nordstroms, seems to be okay. The 8-story Chicago Place Mall is empty but for the street-front retailers. The owner of Water Tower Place is in bankruptcy. The most prestigious of the malls, 900 North Michigan, is dealing with multiple vacancies, particularly in the upper floors. The “900″ management even has an employee tasked with the job of decorating the vacant store fronts to make them look- well, not so vacant. Cook County’s confiscatory sales tax- 10.25%- which funds the Democratic Party’s patronage system in Chicago- no doubt has contributed to the decline. But, even with that tax, one cannot help but conclude that the mall shopping era, as we once knew it, is now dead.

By: James

James — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:41:05 +0000

Tomm is right that Forest Park is definitely not a post-WWII suburb. The housing stock is more like 80 to 90 years old. May be Prange Way was thinking of “Park Forest”, the classic post-War suburb…

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:53:42 +0000

@Tomm, I think what basically occurred was that the big box stores likely popped up at the time FP Mall did. Over time, the North Riverside Mall became the dominant mall for the near west suburbs, due to both how much bigger it was, and the fact it had multiple big name anchors. And of course, the downtown Oak Park + River Forest retail area around Lake and Harlem probably absorbed some of the stores that used to be in FP Mall, such as Claire’s.

I’m only just remembering now that the FP Mall sign looks so darn similar to the sign for the Addison Mall shopping center on Addison Ave. inbetween California and Elston, that it isn’t funny!

By: Allan

Allan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:47:01 +0000

@James, I only went to Forest Park Mall maybe just once or twice in my life, and that was many years ago. Perhaps I should do a detour into this mall sometime, to see what’s left of this mall. The last time I went by this mall and saw it in the distance, I can definitely confirm there is a grocery store on the site(Ultra Foods), but can’t confirm if any interior parts of the mall have been demolished.

Didn’t realize Old Country Buffet had closed, since I thought both OCB and K-Mart were the last stores left in FP Mall. Guess OCB has been gone for some period of time, and for whatever reason, I oddly remember going to the OCB in the mall years ago!

Finally, I also completely forgot about the movie theater that was attached to this mall years ago. Does anyone remember if it was a Loews or Cineplex Odeon theater(I’m starting to recall it was a part of one of those 2 chains), and how many screens it had?

By: Tomm

Tomm — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:10:34 +0000

Just to clarify, Forest Park is not really a ‘post WW2′ suburb. Most of the housing there is from the early 1900’s, with quite a few 1920’s classic Chicago Bungalows.

North Riverside, Hillside, and Westchester nearby were built up after WW2, but Forest Park is very similar to Oak Park/Berwyn/Cicero in the median age of the housing stock.

BTW: The Big Box stores near FP Mall were built afterwards, in reply to “no shortage of big box stores along Cermak and Roosevelt Roads. No need for a Forest Park Mall. Amen!”

By: Los Angeles retail

Los Angeles retail — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:56:36 +0000

It’s sad to see the retail sector of our economy this destroyed. One thing of note is that the concept of a mall has changed, and it appears that this mall resembles an outdated concept. Today’s mall is more of a destination, not just an assemblage of retail stores.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:30:45 +0000

That seems right. The Courtesy space apparently became the church before it became the supermarket. According to Bing maps, the church now occupies most of the mall.

By: Caldor

Caldor — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:29:30 +0000

@Bobby, actually I’m not sure this is wrong. It sounds like the church originally occupied the Courtesy space before ultimately taking over the entire mall. They may not be in the Courtesy space anymore (this is what I’m a bit confused about) since it appears a supermarket occupies at least part of that building but it sounds like that was their initial outpost here.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:28:52 +0000

@Prange Way, You still left in a sentence about the church being in the former Courtesy. Might wanna fix that too so the article doesn’t contradict itself.