Ford City Mall
Encyclopedia
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
located on the southwest side of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the West Lawn
West Lawn, Chicago
West Lawn, one of Chicago's 77 official community areas, is located on the southwest side of the city. It is considered to be a "melting pot" of sorts, due to its constant change of races moving in and out of the area, as well as the diversity that exists there. It has a small town atmosphere in...
neighborhood on 76th Street and Cicero Avenue.
Opened in 1965, the mall includes Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott & Co., known informally as Carson's, is an upscale chain of department stores that have been in business for over 150 years. Their product price points are targeted to the moderate-to-upscale shopper...
, JCPenney, Marshalls
Marshalls
Marshalls, Inc., is a chain of American department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 750 conventional stores, as well as larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico. Marshalls expanded into Canada in March 2011...
, and Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...
.
History
Construction started in 1942. The purpose for construction was to build a defense plant. Approximately 17,000 workers were employed. This caused the southwest side of the city to become more populated as more people were moving there for work. By October, Building No. 1 was finished. Testing of aircraft engines to be used for the B29 bomber began. Throughout the winter, they continued building. By the spring of 1943, 10 buildings, made of steel, concrete and wood, had been constructed. The building covered approximately 6000000 square feet (557,418.2 m²). The largest building was Building No. 4. It covered 62 acres (250,905.3 m²), and it was built out of reinforced concrete. The plant consisted of 7000 miles (11,265.4 km) of underground piping and 15 miles (24.1 km) of cables and wires for water and power.By December 1945, the building was left vacant due to the end of the war. The government attempted to sell it without success. It was later retrofitted for automobile production for Tucker Corporation
1948 Tucker Sedan
The 1948 Tucker Sedan or Tucker '48 Sedan was an advanced automobile conceived by Preston Tucker and briefly produced in Chicago in 1948...
and then Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
.
The building remained a white elephant
White elephant
A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth...
until the Korean War, when it was reopened to build airplane engines for the war effort, under contract from Ford Motor Company. The Ford company modernized everything inside the building, employing nearly 12,000 people. The building closed again in 1959.
In 1961, the government sold it to Harry F Chaddick, along with other Chicagoans. They had a vision for the greatest commerce center in Chicago. Some buildings were torn down to make room for parking lots. The buildings that remained were remodeled to attract retail tenants.
Developers divided the building into a separate portion for the mall. The mall opened in 1965 as Ford City.
The mall consists of two halves - a strip mall and enclosed mall. The strip mall portion is connected to the enclosed mall by a tunnel called "The Connection". It utilizes the basement between the severed halves of the buildings directly below the parking lot. The Connection was originally called Peacock Alley from the late 60s through some time in the 1980s. Wieboldt's
Wieboldt's
Wieboldt Stores, Inc., also known as Wieboldt's, did business as a Chicago general retailer between 1883 and 1986. It was founded in 1883 by storekeeper William A. Wieboldt. The flagship location was located on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago...
occupied the western-facing space until 1987 when Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott & Co., known informally as Carson's, is an upscale chain of department stores that have been in business for over 150 years. Their product price points are targeted to the moderate-to-upscale shopper...
moved in. The southern-facing space was last occupied by Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...
until that chain's bankruptcy. JCPenney occupies the eastern facing space.
Until February 2008, the mall was managed by General Growth Properties Inc. for a private investment company. The Mall is now managed by Jones Lang LaSalle
Jones Lang LaSalle
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. is a multinational financial and professional services company specializing in real estate. Global headquarters are located in Chicago, with an operational remit covering the Americas regional market...
.
In 2009-2010, Ford City Mall began a multi-million dollar long term capital redevelopment program undertaking North Mall infrastructure work, Cicero Avenue frontage and North Mall parking lot resurfacing. During this time new tenants such as Conway’s, US Cellular, Rodeo, Amici, Star Diamond Jewelers, a new GNC, She Bar, Eldorado Fine Jewelers, Avon, China Max, US Sprint and others opened for business at Ford City Mall.
Early 2011 – Phase 2 of the long term capital redevelopment plan began with refurbishment of the Cicero Avenue Pylon signs enabling large square footage use tenants the ability to gain maximum store signage exposure along the heavily trafficked Cicero Avenue roadway.
As part of the 2011 capital redevelopment program, Ford City Mall is in the process of demolishing several small outparcel buildings and a former vacant anchor store, leading the way to future development options under discussion at this time.
Ford City Mall continues to be a major retail hub on the Southwest side of Chicago, anchored by Carson Pirie Scott, the only JC Penney store in the City of Chicago, a 14-screen AMC Cinema, Marshall’s, Old Navy, Conway’s, and over 125 shops and services. Ford City Mall is located three miles south of Midway airport and I-55, with excellent accessibility via public transportation. To obtain more information, please go to the mall’s website for additional information on mall events, updates and store specials: http://www.shopfordcitymall.com. The mall is also now on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/login/setashome.php?ref=login#!/FordCityMall.
Pace Buses
- #379 Midway-Orland Square
- #382 Central/Clearing
- #383 South Cicero
- #384 Narragansett/Ridgeland
- #385 87th/111th/127th
Orange Line Extension
Original plans for the Orange Line was called for the terminus to be at Ford City. Due to lack of funding the city decided to end the line at Midway with a layout allowing for future expansion. The CTA recently undertook an Alternatives Analysis for the Orange Line extension to Ford City and determined that the project currently stands at an estimated $200 million. On August 12, 2009, the CTA approved the extension plans.The extension will open in 2016.