Northfield Square Mall - Bradley, IL (Kankakee)
Northfield Square in Bradley, IL was developed by the Edward J. DeBartolo company and opened on August 1, 1990, with only 60% of the mall occupied. The mall opened with Sears, JCPenney, Carson Pirie Scott, Venture, and a theater. After merging with DeBartolo, Simon was able to raise the occupancy of the mall to around 90% by the late 2000s, but this newfound success was short-lived and the mall is about 90% vacant today with about 9 open tenants total in a 530,325 ft2 mall.
Simon would later sell off the mall and the property is currently owned by Namdar after changing hands several times. Carson’s opened a second store in the Venture space when they closed in 1998 and the mall would continue to be fully anchored for 20 years until both Sears and Carson’s closed in 2018. JCPenney closed in the summer of 2020, leaving Cinnemark as the mall's only anchor. The fountain pictured here was repaired by Namdar a few years ago, but the other two were taken out of service permanently by a previous owner. I’ve seen videos about this mall being a “high-end 80s mall”, but it opened firmly into 1990, DeBartolo used a 99% identical design in 1991 for Illinois Star Centre Mall, and the mall has only ever been modest in its scope and intentions. The only stores the mall has ever had with higher prices were Express, Structure, and Carson’s. However, the mall is much nicer in design than the similar-sized malls that GGP, Warmack, and Simon were building at the time, it’s more in line with what Forest City and Richard E. Jacob’s were building.
Northfield Square Mall - Bradley, IL (Kankakee)
Northfield Square in Bradley, IL was developed by the Edward J. DeBartolo company and opened on August 1, 1990, with only 60% of the mall occupied. The mall opened with Sears, JCPenney, Carson Pirie Scott, Venture, and a theater. After merging with DeBartolo, Simon was able to raise the occupancy of the mall to around 90% by the late 2000s, but this newfound success was short-lived and the mall is about 90% vacant today with about 9 open tenants total in a 530,325 ft2 mall.
Simon would later sell off the mall and the property is currently owned by Namdar after changing hands several times. Carson’s opened a second store in the Venture space when they closed in 1998 and the mall would continue to be fully anchored for 20 years until both Sears and Carson’s closed in 2018. JCPenney closed in the summer of 2020, leaving Cinnemark as the mall's only anchor. The fountain pictured here was repaired by Namdar a few years ago, but the other two were taken out of service permanently by a previous owner. I’ve seen videos about this mall being a “high-end 80s mall”, but it opened firmly into 1990, DeBartolo used a 99% identical design in 1991 for Illinois Star Centre Mall, and the mall has only ever been modest in its scope and intentions. The only stores the mall has ever had with higher prices were Express, Structure, and Carson’s. However, the mall is much nicer in design than the similar-sized malls that GGP, Warmack, and Simon were building at the time, it’s more in line with what Forest City and Richard E. Jacob’s were building.