31 October 2009 | Dead Malls, Illinois | Prange Way

Recently I’ve been following coverage of some pretty extensive renovations taking place at Lincoln Mall, a long-beleagured super-regional mall in south suburban Chicagoland. Initially I was excited at the prospect of even a modicum of success here, especially considering I’ve never seen the mall even close to its potential. I first visited Lincoln Mall about a decade ago, after it fell in the toilet but before it drowned. I recently re-visited for the first time after some of the renovations have materialized, and was extremely dismayed – both by the progress of the renovations and also by a personal, not-so-fun experience I had there.

42 Comments

22 September 2009 | Illinois | Prange Way

We thought we’d switch it up a bit with the mall postings and fire off a whole bunch of them at once, in an urban setting: downtown Chicago.

The following six malls are the largest, and most prominent, cohesive retail centers in downtown Chicago, which we’re defining as extending beyond the Loop and including the neighborhoods River North and Streeterville because, well, they’re downtown for all practical purposes.

49 Comments

17 June 2009 | Dead Malls, Illinois | Prange Way

Forest Park Mall was a 400,000 square-foot enclosed mall located along Roosevelt Road just west of Harlem Avenue, and about a quarter of a mile south of I-290. Helmed by the same developer who created Ford City Mall on Chicago’s southwest side, Forest Park Mall – just like Ford City – was also a redevelopment project that converted an old factory into a shopping center – albeit on a smaller scale.

24 Comments

14 May 2009 | Illinois | Prange Way

Oakbrook Center is, according to its website, the largest open-air mall in the entire country; and, at over 2 million square feet of leasable space, it’s a believable claim. It was, also according to the website, voted as the number one shopping destination in all of Illinois.

41 Comments

17 December 2008 | Illinois | Prange Way

 
Niles, Illinois is an inner-ring suburb of Chicago located about 15 miles from the Loop.  With nearly 30,000 residents, Niles is a typical inner-ring suburb with a large post-war housing stock and lots of mid-mod artifacts as well as the rather kitschy replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, built in 1934. 
The main commercial street in Niles is Milwaukee Avenue, (IL Route [...]

29 Comments

15 October 2008 | Dead Malls, Illinois | Prange Way

So here we have possibly one of the smallest, worse-for-wear malls this side of the mighty Mississippi.  We’re actually surprised it’s still open for business at all; in fact, a website trying to sell Lincoln Mall indicates it has been “recently de-malled” and “recently rehabbed”.  In fact, the whole thing can be yours for the low, low price of $3.5 [...]

38 Comments

26 June 2008 | Illinois | Prange Way

One of the oldest malls in the Chicagoland area, Harlem Irving Plaza (also known as ‘the HIP’) is also one of the last independently-owned and operated regional centers in the entire country.  During its 5+ decades in existence, Harlem Irving Plaza has gone through only minor changes yet it remains extremely viable today, serving a densely populated area of inner-ring northwest suburbs [...]

19 Comments

08 June 2008 | Illinois | Prange Way

Alton, Illinois is a small Mississippi River city located 15 miles north of St. Louis.  With a population of about 34,000, Alton anchors the northern extent of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, which is the 18th largest metropolitan area in the country with almost 3 million residents. 
Alton’s history reads pretty much the same as all the other [...]

40 Comments

29 January 2008 | Dead Malls, Illinois | Prange Way

Joliet, Illinois is a booming sprawlburg located about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago with a current estimated population of nearly 150,000 residents.  In its long history, Joliet has worn a lot of hats, from industrial-era superpower to beleagured rust-belt city and back to a different kind of economic success supporting the great machine of [...]

28 Comments

08 January 2008 | Illinois | Prange Way

Evergreen Park, Illinois is an inner-ring southwest suburb of Chicago with a population of about 20,000, located about 10 miles from the Loop.  Although established as a village in 1893, most of Evergreen Park’s growth occurred during the middle of the 20th century.  This, combined with the fact that Evergreen Park is sandwiched in on three sides by [...]

31 Comments