Yorktown Center is an enclosed regional shopping mall located in the village of Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The Mall has three current anchor stores. They include JCPenney, HomeGoods and Marshalls, and a flagship Von Maur, which is the second largest store, the largest being at Perimeter Mall that opened in 2012 in Dunwoody, Georgia. The mall also more than 100 other stores on its two levels. Other amenities include a food court, AMC Theatres, formerly a General Cinema, and an outdoor concourse of shops known as The Shops on Butterfield.
History[]
1960s[]
At the time of its opening in 1968, the 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) Yorktown Center ranked as the largest center in America. The mall was originally a four-anchor indoor mall which featured a three-story Carson Pirie Scott and a 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. North of the mall proper, a strip mall dubbed the "Convenience Center" was constructed. This was originally anchored by a Grand Union supermarket. Other perimeter buildings included auto centers for the JCPenney and Montgomery Ward anchors, a movie theater, and two restaurants.
One unusual feature is the Boeger-Brinkman Cemetery on the southern end of the parking lot, along Butterfield Road. The cemetery was part of a family's farmland that was sold to develop Yorktown Center.
Sign Light Up At Night
1980s[]
A mid-1980s remodeling replaced the dark tile and flat white facades of the mall areas with pastels and neon lighting. As part of this project, freestanding elevators were added to each wing, replacing the "floating" staircases. Later that same decade, a pair of escalators 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.) The vacant supermarket anchor of the Convenience Center became a Scandinavian Design furniture store.
Von Maur
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.
1990s[]
After Wieboldt's closed 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.
When Woolworth's closed in 1997, it remained empty until Big Idea Productions, an animation studio known for its VeggieTales series, took over the space in 1999. 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 but with more work than they thought, they donated the theater to the village and stayed in Yorktown. However, when Big Idea Productions relocated to Franklin, Tennessee in July 2004, the company vacated their mall space. (The space was eventually converted to Steve and Barry's.)
Target Greatland, Opened In October 1996
Meanwhile, the perimeter of the mall became the site of further development, featuring a Target Greatland which opened in October 1996. The J.C. Penney 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, the Convenience Center lost several prominent tenants, including a bank and an Ace Hardware store. However, the anchor space - vacant after the closure of the Scandinavian Design chain - was acquired by Carson Pirie Scott to serve as the new location for their furniture department. In 1999, Fountain Square Of Lombard, a shopping center with a Dick's Sporting Goods and other stores opened to customers.
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 customer service desk was built near the north-side escalator; the mall had no such desk prior to this time.
Westin Hotel
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, and failure to attract another anchor store, it was demolished for a lifestyle center section known as "The Shops on Butterfield". This new section, anchored by HomeGoods, Marshalls, and Lucky Strike Lanes (a bowling alley), opened in 2007. That same year, an eighteen-story Westin Hotel opened outside the mall, along with Miller's Ale House, At the same time, the Convenience Center was renamed "The Shops at Yorktown"; despite the popularity of the Carson Pirie Scott furniture, which added on an expansion, it continued to exhibit a high rate of vacancies.
2010s[]
In April, 2012, Yorktown Center was bought by a partnership between KKR and YTC Pacific for $196 million.
Current Mall Sign
In 2014, Yorktown Center management spent 18 million dollars renovating the food court by adding more healthy options. Upgrades in the food court added 200 seats, entertainment screens, work stations for shoppers to plug in and a family lounge. On August 7, 2014, H&M opened to the public.
In 2016, Sports Authority closed because of bankruptcy.
In April 2018, the mall announced that Carson's would close by August, leaving only Von Maur, HomeGoods and Marshalls and JCPenney as anchor stores. Following the associated closure of the Carson's furniture gallery, the largely vacant Shops of Yorktown was demolished, with the space redeveloped as apartment buildings.
Sales tax rate[]
The sales tax rate for Lombard is 8%. However, an additional 1 percent is added to the sales tax in the Business Improvement District, which includes the new development on the site of the old Montgomery Wards store and a portion of the southwest wing of Yorktown (i.e., the region of Yorktown which includes The Shops on Butterfield). Additionally, restaurants in the Yorktown area that offer sit-down dining are subject to an additional 1 percent Places for Eating Tax; this mainly involves the outlots along Highland Avenue and Butterfield Road.
JCPenney
Anchors[]
Former Anchors[]
- Carson's (opened 1968, closed Late August 2018)
- Wieboldt's (opened 1968, closed 1987, replaced by Von Maur)
- Montgomery Ward (opened 1968, closed 2001, demolished 2006)
See also[]
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Photos[]
