Randhurst Mall
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| Randhurst Mall | |
| Mall facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Mount Prospect, Illinois, USA |
| Opening date | 1962 |
| Developer | Randhurst Corporation |
| Management | Urban Retail Properties |
| Owner | Urban Retail Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 100+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 2 (originally 3) |
| Total retail floor area | 1.4 million square feet (GLA) |
| No. of floors | 4 (2 main floors, 2 subfloors) |
Randhurst Mall is a shopping mall which originally opened in 1962. It is located at the corner of Rand Road (U.S. Route 12) and Elmhurst Road (IL Route 83) in Mount Prospect, Illinois. The mall took its name from combining the names of these two roads. The original owner of the mall was the Randhurst Corporation (an agency of Carson Pirie Scott); it is currently owned by Urban Retail Properties. At the time of its opening, it was the first enclosed regional mall in the Chicago area and the largest enclosed air-conditioned space in the United States.
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[edit] Origins
Randhurst was designed by Victor Gruen, a pioneer of modern shopping mall design. Unlike most shopping malls of the time, which were built in a straight line between two anchoring department stores, Gruen's design was shaped like an equilateral triangle, with an anchoring department store at each angle. Additional stores lined the sides of the triangle on two levels: a conventional level and a level located half a floor below the first level (down a flight of stairs), facing the first level. A floor of offices occupied the level above this "subfloor" of stores. A ring of clerestory windows was mounted in a domed area over the center of the mall; mounted just inside these windows were numerous stained glass windows in various oval and round shapes, oriented in such a way as to cast beams of colored light into the mall itself. As the mall was built at the height of the Cold War, it included a fallout shelter big enough to hold every citizen of Mount Prospect.
At the time of its 1962 opening, the one million square foot Randhurst had three major department store anchors: Wieboldt's, Carson Pirie Scott, and The Fair. All three anchors had two above-ground floors and a full basement. Of the three anchors, the Carson Pirie Scott anchor was the most unique, featuring turquoise-colored accents at the entrances and multi-colored lights around its perimeter. Other stores included Baskins, Charles A. Stevens, and Woolworth's. In 1965, Montgomery Ward purchased The Fair and renamed all its stores as Montgomery Ward; Wards also built an auto service center at the perimeter of the mall. Randhurst would retain this configuration well into the 1980s.
[edit] 1980s
In 1985, then-owners the Rouse Corporation converted the upper sub-level of offices into a food court - one of the first in the Chicago area - and more retail space; a complete conventional second floor of retail space would be constructed by 1990. The "subfloor" of stores was also made larger and easier to access. In 1987, the entire Wieboldt's chain went bankrupt and closed their stores; Peoria, Illinois-based Bergner's acquired the empty Randhurst location. Shortly thereafter, Elgin-based specialty department store Joseph Spiess built a minor anchor (61,000 sq.ft.) next to the Wieboldt's/Bergner's anchor, and the Main Street department store chain added another minor anchor near the Montgomery Ward anchor (just before the chain was acquired by Kohl's). Spiess expanded too rapidly and too late for the market; as a consequence of this, the chain went bankrupt, and the store at Randhurst closed on January 31, 1992.
[edit] 1990s
In 1990, Bergner's - which had acquired Carson Pirie Scott in 1989 - closed their Randhurst store, allowing the Carson Pirie Scott anchor to move into the grander ex-Wieboldt's building while J.C. Penney took over the former Carson Pirie Scott anchor. In 1995, Circuit City and Old Navy took over the empty Spiess anchor, while a new Filene's Basement minor anchor occupied the majority of the "subfloor." This brought Randhurst to its greatest level of occupancy ever - three major anchors and four minor anchors - and an all-time peak of 1.4 million square feet of retail space.
The next ten years, however, would be much more difficult for Randhurst. The construction and expansion of multiple shopping malls in the area, especially the improvements to Woodfield Mall in nearby Schaumburg, devastated Randhurst's shopping base, as did the local population's general change in shopping tastes. The mall's management tried to compensate by updating the mall's decor and adding new Jewel-Osco and Home Depot stores at the perimeter of the mall; despite this, foot traffic fell, and stores began disappearing from the mall at a rapid rate. This included the Filene's Basement minor anchor, which closed in 1999 (along with three other Chicago-area Filene's Basement stores).
[edit] 2000s
The problems for Randhurst continued as one of Chicago's first lifestyle centers, Deer Park Town Center, opened in north suburban Deer Park in 2000. This open-air shopping center became increasingly popular and may have attracted patrons who would have otherwise traveled to Randhurst or nearby Woodfield. Meanwhile, Randhurst suffered the loss of its J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward anchors within months of each other in 2001; J.C. Penney had labeled the Randhurst store as an "underperformer," while Chicago-based Montgomery Ward closed their entire chain of stores and went out of business. In 2003, Kohl's moved its store to a space formerly occupied by Venture near the corner of Elmhurst Road and Dempster Street on the south end of Mount Prospect. Following the sudden departure of these three anchor tenants, many stores inside the mall closed as well. The devastating loss of numerous tenants and anchors led many to believe that Randhurst was about to become a dead mall.
In 2004, some revitalization did occur for the mall, as a grand remodeling and repositioning scheme for the mall was put in motion. The ex-Carson Pirie Scott/J.C. Penney and ex-Kohl's anchors were razed to build a new 150,000 sq. ft. Costco anchor; similarly, the ex-Fair/Montgomery Ward anchor was mostly razed to create a grand new "promenade" entrance for the mall, anchored by an Applebee's and a Buffalo Wild Wings. Circuit City closed in 2005, and Old Navy moved to nearby Arlington Heights, all in the midst of the new construction. Bed Bath & Beyond and Steve & Barry's University Sportswear quickly took their places - Bed Bath & Beyond moved into the former Circuit City retail space, while Steve & Barry's opened in the the former Applebee's restaurant location. Applebee's subsequently moved into a portion of the former Montgomery Ward space, and it can now only be accessed through an outside entrance - unlike the former space it occupied, where both inside and outside entrances were present. While all of these measures appear to have stabilized the mall for now, the unique Gruen design was partly lost due to the new construction. Additionally, major vacancies remain in the mall interior, though mall standards such as American Eagle Outfitters and Victoria's Secret are present.
