A video game arcade at the newly named Westfield Shopping Town at Chicago Ridge has been notified that its lease will not be renewed, but the longtime tenant is hoping for a reprieve.
Dan McGrail, a manager at Aladdin’s Castle wants city officials to sign a petition asking the mall’s management company to allow Aladdin’s Castle to continue to operate where it has been for 30 years. “The mall’s new owners want us out of there. They believe we are a bad element,” said McGrail.
Eric Loula, general manager of Westfield Shopping Town, declined to comment.
McGrail said the arcade was notified last month that when the current lease expires at the end of April it won’t be renewed.
Aladdin’s Castle employees are conducting a petition drive intended to keep the arcade in the mall, and they are hopeful that signatures of village officials will add credibility to the request. But so far only Village Clerk Charles Tokar and Trustee Donald Pratt have added their signatures, and only, they say, as private citizens, not elected officials.