City officials said this week that they are abandoning for now any efforts to attract redevelopment to the St. Charles Mall on the city’s southwest side.
The decision comes after an announcement from Kmart Corp. that its store at the mall is one of 71 that the Troy, Mich.-based company plans to close this summer.
“We’re not doing a thing,” said Mayor Fred Norris. “The current (mall) management hasn’t made any efforts to do anything there; why should we?”
The departure of Kmart sometime in August is the second major blow this year to the mall at Illinois Highway 38 and Randall Road. In April, the mall’s other major retail anchor, Joseph Spiess & Co., announced it was bankrupt and would be closing its stores by July.
Fewer than 10 of the original 35 retail spaces are filled. The mall is owned by a consortium of four insurance companies. Representatives of the consortium could not be reached for comment.
The apparent failure of the mall, which was built in the early 1980s at the beginning of the Fox Valley’s development boom, presents something of a paradox. It comes at a time when retail development in the Randall Road corridor is blossoming.
St. Charles Planning Director Robert Hupp said competition from commercial projects in neighboring Batavia and Geneva, as well as in St. Charles itself, may be reasons why the mall is suffering.
When the City Council last month was considering a 35-acre shopping center on the northeast side, opponents used the mall vacancies as an argument against allowing more commercial space. The council eventually rejected the proposed center.