Yorktown Center

Yorktown Center is an enclosed regional shopping mall located in the village of Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Anchor stores include Carson Pirie Scott, J. C. Penney, and a flagship Von Maur (the largest store in the Von Maur chain).^[1] The mall also features two junior anchor stores, HomeGoods and Marshalls, and more than 100 other stores on its two levels. Other amenities include a food court, a movie theater (AMC Theatres, formerly a General Cinema), and an outdoor concourse of shops known as The Shops on Butterfield.

At the time of its 1968 opening, the 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m²) Yorktown Center ranked as the largest shopping center in America. The mall was originally a four-anchor indoor mall - three-story Carson Pirie Scott and Wieboldt's anchor department stores faced each other across a central courtyard, while wings for two-story J. C. Penney and Montgomery Ward anchor department stores stretched northward and southward, respectively, from the center courtyard. The mall even contained two two-story junior anchors: Madigan's (which was converted to the current food court when they closed), a department store near the Wieboldt's end of the JCPenney wing, and Woolworth's, a bi-leveldime store near the Montgomery Ward anchor. Other major tenants included Chas. A. Stevens and Herman's World of Sporting Goods. North of the mall proper, a strip mall dubbed the "Convenience Center" was constructed. This was originally anchored by a Grand Union supermarket, which later became a Scandinavian Design furniture store and most recently (as of 2008) a furniture store for the mall's Carson Pirie Scott anchor. Other perimeter buildings included auto centers for the JCPenney and Montgomery Ward anchors, a movie theater, and two restaurants.

One unusual feature is the Boeger-Brinkman Cemetery on the southern end of the parking lot, along Butterfield Road. The cemetery was part of a family's farmland that was sold to develop Yorktown Center.

1980s

A mid-1980s remodeling replaced the dark tile and flat white facades of the mall areas with pastels and neon lighting. As part of this project, freestanding elevators were added to each wing, replacing the "floating" staircases. Later that same decade, a pair of escalators was added near the JCPenney and Montgomery Ward anchors, with additional retail space built under each pair of escalators. (Previous to these remodelings, there were no elevators in the mall proper, and only one pair of criss-crossed escalators at the center of the courtyard.)

Unlike nearby Oakbrook Center - which would add to its anchor collection three times in twenty years - the middle-market Yorktown Center would lose multiple anchors over the same span. Wieboldt's was the first to close, shuttered at the bankruptcy of the chain in 1987; the anchor lay vacant for seven years, until Von Maur remodeled the anchor and opened it as their first Chicago-area store in 1994. Madigan's would close in 1992; this space, too, remained unoccupied until it was rebuilt as a food court and retail space.

1990s

When Woolworth's closed in 1997, it remained empty until Big Idea Productions, an animation studio known for its VeggieTales series, took over the space in 1999.^[2] Big Idea had originally planned to use the space as temporary offices as they rebuilt and expanded the local DuPage Theater into a new corporate headquarters but with more work than they thought, they donated the theater to the village and stayed in Yorktown. However, when Big Idea Productions liquidated in 2003, the company vacated their mall space (and the space was eventually converted to Steve and Barry's).

Meanwhile, the perimeter of the mall became the site of further development, featuring a Target Greatland. The JCPenney Auto Center would be redeveloped into The Pacific Club, a nightclub managed by Chicago football icon Walter Payton's restaurant group. The movie theater would be torn down and replaced with an eighteen-screen megaplex. Despite a remodeling, though, the "Convenience Center" lost several prominent tenants, including a bank and an Ace Hardware store.

2000s

At the beginning of the decade, a major remodeling of the central courtyard took place. The narrow, linear bridge between the north and south sides of the courtyard was demolished, along with its pair of escalators. In its place, a wide diagonal bridge was built, with two pairs of escalators. As part of the project, a customer service desk was built near the north-side escalator; the mall had no such desk prior to this time.

Montgomery Ward was the latest anchor to fall, closing as the chain fell to bankruptcy in 2001. After a short stint as Magellan's Furniture, and failure to attract another anchor store, it was demolished for a lifestyle center section known as "The Shops on Butterfield". This new section, anchored by HomeGoods, Marshalls, and Lucky Strike Lanes (an upscale bowling alley), opened in 2007. At the same time, the "Convenience Center" was renamed "The Shops at Yorktown"; despite the popularity of the Carson Pirie Scott furniture gallery, it has continued to exhibit a high rate of vacancies.

Also in 2007, a 500 bed Westin hotel was opened on the periphery, next to the Target Greatland. This hotel includes a conference center and two restaurants run by the Harry Caray restaurant empire. The Montgomery Ward auto center was torn down in favor of a Claim Jumper restaurant, which joined Rock Bottom Brewery, Buca di Beppo, and The Capital Grille along the property's perimeter.

In late 2008, Steve & Barry's closed (as did all of its other stores). Since 2008 Yorktown Shopping Center has added A'gaci, Charming Charlie, Tom & Eddie's, Fuzziwigs Candy Factory, MagiQuest (closed early 2012), Best Buy Mobile, and Baskin-Robbins.

2010s

In April, 2012, Yorktown Center was bought by a partnership between KKR and YTC Pacific for $196 million.^[3]

The Paul Mitchell Beauty School of Chicago will open in 2013 in the space that was occupied by Steve & Barry's Sportswear. Only a few empty locations remain inside the mall.

Sales tax rate

The sales tax rate for Lombard is 8.25%. However, an additional 1 percent is added to the sales tax in the Business Improvement District, which includes the new development on the site of the old Montgomery Wards store and a portion of the southwest wing of Yorktown (i.e, the region of Yorktown Mall which includes The Shops on Butterfield). Additionally, restaurants in the Yorktown area that offer sit-down dining are subject to an additional 1 percent Places for Eating Tax; this mainly involves the outlots along Highland Avenue and Butterfield Road.^[4]

References

External links

• Official website