Fox Valley Mall, formerly Westfield Fox Valley, is a shopping mall in Aurora, Illinois. Its three anchor stores are JCPenney, Macy's and Round One Entertainment.
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.
The mall is located under an hour away from Chicago in the small city of Aurora, IL off RT-59, New York Street and RT-34 (Ogden Ave.). Out of most malls, this one is routinely visited for shopping and socializing.
History[]
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 JCPenney, Lord & Taylor and 150 other shops and services.
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.
Sears
Sales at the mall were stated at $115 million in 1977.
Around the Mid 80s, either a Children's Palace or Child World opened in the malls outer lot facing the JCPenney wing.
In 1989, a shopping center outside the mall called New York Square was built. It features Kohl's, OfficeMax and other stores. A year later in 1990, another new shopping center, Fox Valley Commons was built across from the mall. It has Bed Bath & Beyond and Cemark Fresh Market, a former Sam's Club, Walmart and Office Depot.
In 1998, Steak 'n Shake was built. In 2000, Hooters opened to guests.
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.
Carson's During Liquidation Sale
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.
In 2009, A Tilted Kilt Bar & Grill opened between the Carson's and Macy's wings. In 2012, a Tony Sacco's Pizza restaurant also opened across the Tilted Kilt in the Same hall along with Books-A-Million by Macy’s. Round One Entertainment opened in 2017.
Retail Directory
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. On May 31, 2018 Sears announced that it would also be closing its Fox Valley Mall location as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 2, 2018. This leaves JCPenney and Macy's as the only remaining anchors. In Late 2020, demolition of the Sears store began to make way for a Fox Valley 2.0 redevelopment project.
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. 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.
Anchors[]
Gallery[]
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