Yorktown Center
Encyclopedia
Yorktown Center is an enclosed regional shopping mall
located in the village of Lombard
, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States
. Opened in 1968, the mall currently features more than 100 stores on two levels. Anchor store
s include Carson Pirie Scott
, JCPenney, and a flagship Von Maur
(the largest store in the Von Maur chain). The mall also features two junior anchor stores: HomeGoods
and Marshalls
. 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 1300000 square feet (120,774 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 JCPenney 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, a department store near the Wieboldt's end of the JCPenney wing, and Woolworth's
, a dime 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.
lighting. As part of this project, freestanding elevator
s were added to each wing, replacing the "floating" staircases. Later that same decade, a pair of escalator
s 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.
series, took over the space. 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. However, when Big Idea Productions collapsed in 2003, the company vacated their mall space, and the space was eventually converted to Steve & 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.
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, the anchor was demolished for a lifestyle center
section known as "The Shops on Butterfield". This new section, anchored by HomeGoods
, Marshalls
, The sports authority, Lucky Strike Lanes, 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. Capital Grill opened in 2008
Also in 2007, a 500 bed Westin hotel was opened on the periphery. 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, MagicQuest, Best Buy Mobile, and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. Currently there are only a few empty locations.
is 8.25%. Some of the store locations are required to charge the higher rate than others, based on their address of the store.
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 in the village of Lombard
Lombard, Illinois
Lombard, "The Lilac Village", is a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois. The population was 42,322 at the 2000 census. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2004 to be 42,975.-History:...
, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Opened in 1968, the mall currently features more than 100 stores on two levels. Anchor store
Anchor store
In retail, an anchor store, draw tenant, anchor tenant, or key tenant is one of the larger stores in a shopping mall, usually a department store or a major retail chain....
s include 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, and a flagship Von Maur
Von Maur
Von Maur is an mid-range specialty department store chain with stores located in the Midwestern United States and newly expansion stores in the Southern United States. The chain, based in Davenport, Iowa, sells mid-priced brand-name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, gifts, jewelry and shoes. As of...
(the largest store in the Von Maur chain). The mall also features two junior anchor stores: HomeGoods
HomeGoods
HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores operated by TJX Companies and has 270 stores across the US as of February 2007.HomeGoods operates the home furnishings sections of T.J. Maxx 'n More and Marshalls Mega Store stores....
and 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...
. Other amenities include a food court
Food court
A food court is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls and airports, and in various regions may be a standalone development...
, a movie theater (AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment, Inc., is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 5,325 screens, second only to Regal Entertainment Group, and one of the United States's four national cinema chains AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema), officially known as...
,formerly a General Cinema), and an outdoor concourse of shops known as The Shops on Butterfield.
At the time of its 1968 opening, the 1300000 square feet (120,774 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
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...
and 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...
anchor department stores faced each other across a central courtyard, while wings for two-story JCPenney and 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...
anchor department stores stretched northward and southward, respectively, from the center courtyard. The mall even contained two two-story junior anchors: Madigan's, a department store near the Wieboldt's end of the JCPenney wing, and Woolworth's
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
, a dime store near the Montgomery Ward anchor. Other major tenants included Chas. A. Stevens and Herman's World of Sporting Goods
Herman's World of Sporting Goods
Herman's World Of Sporting Goods was a sporting goods retailer in the United States. It was founded by Herman Steinlauf in 1916 as a music store. At one time, there was a gentleman's agreement with west coast competitor Oshman's Sporting Goods, that the Herman's chain would stay east of the...
.
North of the mall proper, a strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...
dubbed the "Convenience Center" was constructed. This was originally anchored by a Grand Union
Grand Union (stores)
Grand Union is a supermarket chain operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers of Brattleboro, Vermont. Originally based in Elmwood Park, New Jersey , the company operated mostly in the northeastern United States but at times its reach extended into the Midwest, Southeast, and the Caribbean...
supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
, which later became a Scandinavian Design
Scandinavian Design
Scandinavian design emerged in the 1950s in the three Scandinavian countries , as well as Finland. It is a design movement characterized by simple designs, minimalism, functionality, and low-cost mass production....
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.
1980s
A mid-1980s remodeling replaced the dark tile and flat white facades of the mall areas with pastels and neonNeon
Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and an atomic number of 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth. A colorless, inert noble gas under standard conditions, neon gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or...
lighting. As part of this project, freestanding elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s were added to each wing, replacing the "floating" staircases. Later that same decade, a pair of escalator
Escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
s 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
Oakbrook Center
Oakbrook Center is an upscale super-regional shopping center located near Interstate 88 in Oak Brook, Illinois. It was originally opened in 1962 and has become the largest open-air center in the contiguous United States with over 160 stores and restaurants...
- 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
Von Maur
Von Maur is an mid-range specialty department store chain with stores located in the Midwestern United States and newly expansion stores in the Southern United States. The chain, based in Davenport, Iowa, sells mid-priced brand-name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, gifts, jewelry and shoes. As of...
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 VeggieTalesVeggieTales
VeggieTales is an American series of children's computer animated films featuring anthropomorphic vegetables in stories conveying moral themes based on Christianity...
series, took over the space. 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. However, when Big Idea Productions collapsed in 2003, the company vacated their mall space, and the space was eventually converted to Steve & Barry's
Steve & Barry's
Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual apparel. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidated all of its stores throughout 2008....
.
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
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
managed by Chicago football icon Walter Payton
Walter Payton
Walter Jerry Payton was an American football running back who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League for thirteen seasons. Walter Payton was known around the NFL as "Sweetness". He is remembered as one of the most prolific running backs in the history of American football...
'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
Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware Corporation is a hardware cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. ACE Hardware Corporation, with 4,444 stores, does over $3 billion in retail hardware sales annually down from its peak of $12.5 billion in 2007.-History:...
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 proper 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, the anchor was demolished for a lifestyle center
Lifestyle center (retail)
A lifestyle center is a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities oriented towards upscale consumers...
section known as "The Shops on Butterfield". This new section, anchored by HomeGoods
HomeGoods
HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores operated by TJX Companies and has 270 stores across the US as of February 2007.HomeGoods operates the home furnishings sections of T.J. Maxx 'n More and Marshalls Mega Store stores....
, 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...
, The sports authority, Lucky Strike Lanes, 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. Capital Grill opened in 2008
Also in 2007, a 500 bed Westin hotel was opened on the periphery. This hotel includes a conference center and two restaurants run by the Harry Caray
Harry Caray
Harry Caray, born Harry Christopher Carabina, was an American baseball broadcaster on radio and television. He covered four Major League Baseball teams, beginning with a long tenure calling the games of the St...
restaurant empire. The Montgomery Ward auto center was torn down in favor of a Claim Jumper
Claim Jumper
Claim Jumper is a restaurant chain headquartered in Irvine, California with 45 locations in Arizona, California, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, Wisconsin and Oregon. Founder Craig Nickoloff opened the first Claim Jumper Restaurant in Los Alamitos, California in 1977...
restaurant, which joined Rock Bottom Brewery, Buca di Beppo
Buca di Beppo
Buca di Beppo is a restaurant specializing in immigrant Southern Italian food. The name roughly translates as "Joe's Basement"...
, and The Capital Grille
The Capital Grille
The Capital Grille is a national chain of upscale steakhouses; it currently has locations in twenty states and the District of Columbia. It is owned by Darden Restaurants, based in Orlando, Florida, a multi-brand restaurant operator that owns other restaurant brands such as Olive Garden and Red...
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, MagicQuest, Best Buy Mobile, and Baskin Robbins Ice Cream. Currently there are only a few empty locations.
Sales tax rate
As of July 1, 2008, the general merchandise sales tax rate for Yorktown Center stores is 9.25%. Outside of the mall ring road, the sales tax rate for LombardLombard, Illinois
Lombard, "The Lilac Village", is a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois. The population was 42,322 at the 2000 census. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2004 to be 42,975.-History:...
is 8.25%. Some of the store locations are required to charge the higher rate than others, based on their address of the store.