Fox Valley Mall

Fox Valley Mall
View from Southwest parking lot
Location Aurora, Illinois, USA
Coordinates 41°45′30″N 88°12′45″W / 41.7583628°N 88.2125683°W / 41.7583628; -88.2125683Coordinates: 41°45′30″N 88°12′45″W / 41.7583628°N 88.2125683°W / 41.7583628; -88.2125683
Address 195 Fox Valley Center
Aurora, IL 60504
Opening date 1975
Developer Metropolitan Structures, Inc./ Westbrook Venture
Management Centennial Real Estate
Owner Centennial Real Estate
Montgomery Street Partners
USAA Real Estate
Westfield Corporation
No. of stores and services 150
No. of anchor tenants 5 (2 open, 3 vacant)
Total retail floor area 1,404,987 square feet (130,527.6 m2) [1]
No. of floors 2 with partial basement
Website www.shopfoxvalleymall.com

Fox Valley Mall, formerly Westfield Fox Valley, is a shopping mall in Aurora, Illinois. Its two anchor stores are J. C. Penney and Macy's.

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 mall as of December 2015.[2]

History

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 J. C. Penney, 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.

Sales at the mall were stated at $115 million in 1977.[4]

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.

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.

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.[5] On May 31, 2018 Sears announced that it would also be closing it's Fox Valley Mall location as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 2, 2018. This leaves J. C. Penney and Macy's as the only remaining anchors.[6]

Area

The mall is situated on Illinois Route 59 between U.S. 34 and East New York Street / West Aurora Avenue, with 8,006 car parking spaces.[7] The area around the mall has been developed on the east and west sides of the road, with such stores as Meijer, Target, Guitar Center, Petsmart, and other retailers and restaurants.

References

  1. ↑ "URW". www.westfieldcorp.com.
  2. ↑ "Fox Valley Mall in Aurora has new owner". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2018-03-18. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  3. ↑ "background on the construction of Fox Valley Mall". The DuPage Magazine, October 1978, pp. 14-16.
  4. ↑ "early sales figure". The DuPage Magazine, October 1978, p. 17.
  5. ↑ "Carson's Fox Valley store, furniture clearance outlet in Naperville to close as parent company liquidates". Naperville Sun, April 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ "http://www.dailyherald.com/business/20180531/three-suburban-sears-stores-on-the-list-of-72-more-set-to-close". Daily Herald, May 31, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Westfield Fox Valley: Key Features". Westfield Group. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
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