Fox Valley Mall, formerly Westfield Fox Valley and Fox Valley Center, is a shopping mall in Aurora, Illinois. The mall's anchor stores are JCPenney and Macy's. Some larger non-anchor stores include H&M and Forever 21. A Round One Entertainment is located in the former Sears wing. The Westfield Group acquired the shopping center in early 2002, and renamed it Westfield Shoppingtown Fox Valley, dropping the Shoppingtown name in June 2005. Westfield Group sold 80% interest in the mall as of December 2015.[2]
1960s to 2020s
Original Logo of the Fox Valley Center Mall—changed when it became Westfield Fox Valley
Original planning was started in 1968 by Urban Investment and Development Company; a prototype called Environ 2000. The first plans had 640 acres (2.6 km2) for development as a planned community to help minimize suburban sprawl.
When construction was ready to start in June 1973, the planned unit development was 4,220 acres (17.1 km2) of land between Naperville and Aurora. Fox Valley Center and Villages developers were Metropolitan Structures, Inc., and Westbrook Venture.
The Fox Valley Mall is a 1,500,000-square-foot (140,000 m2) enclosed mall, opened and completed in 1975. Sears and Marshall Field's opened first, followed by JCPenney, Lord & Taylor and 150 other shops and services.[3] Lord & Taylor closed in 1996 and was sold to Carson Pirie Scott (later known as Carson's). Marshall Field's was renamed Macy's in 2006.
This was later followed by marketing for home builders and office development in the area marketed as Fox Valley Villages.[citation needed]
Sales at the mall were stated at $115 million in 1977.[4]
In 1989, a shopping center outside the mall called New York Square was built. It features Kohl's, a former OfficeMax, and other stores. A year later in 1990, another new shopping center, Fox Valley Commons, was built across from the mall. Tenants include International Food Market, and Petland. Former tenants include a Bed Bath And Beyond, Sam's Club, Walmart and Office Depot. An indoor shopping center called Mall of India is slated to open in the former Walmart near the end of 2020. It will feature a grocery store, 10 restaurants, and 30+ retail and office spaces.
Before the mid-2000s, the mall had large gardens and plants spread throughout. They were all removed from the mall shortly after Westfield's purchase.[citation needed]
After Westfield's purchase of the mall, all the signs and usage of the Fox Valley Center logo was discontinued and replaced with Westfield's standard mall brand logo, with the shortened Fox Valley name. In the same time period there was an extensive renovation of the mall for the first time in its history. After Centennial Real Estate's purchase of 80% interest in the mall in 2015, all "Westfield" signs were replaced with "Fox Valley Mall" signs.[citation needed]
In 2009, A Tilted Kilt Bar & Grill opened between the Carson's and Macy's wings. In 2012, a Tony Sacco's Pizza restaurant also opened across the Tilted Kilt in the same hall along with Books-A-Million by Macy's. Round 1 opened in 2017.[5]
On August 19, 2010, a Chick-fil-A restaurant opened outside the mall.[6]
On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Carson's would be closing as parent company The Bon-Ton was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018.[7]
On May 31, 2018, Sears announced that it would also be closing its Fox Valley Mall location as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 2, 2018. This leaves JCPenney and Macy's as the only remaining anchors.
For the Halloween season, Halloween City served as a temporary anchor for the mall in the old Sears in 2019.
On Thanksgiving 2019, Fox Valley Mall opened a new "Center Park" that transformed the mall's formerly unused central courtyard into a public gathering area with green space, places to sit, artwork, and other amenities by the old Carson's. Before Center Park, there was an indoor ice skating rink that moved into an abandoned store, and the ice skating rink will reopen there in November 2020.
In early 2020, Fox Valley Mall began construction on an addition to Center Park, a two-level 8,000 square foot "tree house" that will connect Center Park to the mall and serve as an additional gathering space.
In late fall 2020, the abandoned Sears began demolition and continued the Fox Valley Mall 2.0 Redevelopment Plan, which later added luxury apartments & other amenities.[8][9]
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