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| Location | Aurora, Illinois, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°45′30″N88°12′45″W / 41.7583628°N 88.2125683°W /41.7583628; -88.2125683 |
| Address | 195 Fox Valley Center |
| Opening date | 1975; 50 years ago (1975) |
| Previous names | Fox Valley Center, Westfield Fox Valley |
| Developer | Metropolitan Structures, Inc./ Westbrook Venture |
| Management | Centennial Real Estate |
| Owner | Centennial Real Estate Montgomery Street Partners USAA Real Estate Westfield Corporation |
| No. of stores and services | 150 |
| No. ofanchor tenants | 4 (2 demolished, 2 open) |
| Total retail floor area | 1,404,987 square feet (130,527.6 m2)[1] |
| No. of floors | 2 with partial basement (3 inMacy's) |
| Public transit access | Pace |
| Website | shopfoxvalleymall |
Fox Valley Mall, formerlyWestfield Fox Valley andFox Valley Center, is ashopping mall inAurora, Illinois. The mall's anchor stores areJCPenney andMacy's. Some larger non-anchor stores includeH&M andForever 21. ARound One Entertainment is located in the formerSears wing. TheWestfield 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 the mall as of December 2015.[2]
Original planning was started in 1968 by Urban Investment and Development Company; a prototype calledEnviron 2000. The first plans had 640 acres (2.6 km2) for development as aplanned 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 betweenNaperville andAurora. 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 andMarshall Field's opened first, followed byJCPenney,Lord & Taylor and 150 other shops and services.[3] Lord & Taylor closed in 1996 and was sold toCarson Pirie Scott (later known asCarson's). Marshall Field's was renamedMacy's in 2006.
This was later followed by marketing for home builders and office development in the area marketed as Fox Valley Villages.
Sales at the mall were stated at $115 million in 1977.[4]
In 1989, a shopping center outside the mall called New York Square was built. It featuresKohl's, a formerOfficeMax, and other stores. A year later in 1990, another new shopping center, Fox Valley Commons, was built across from the mall. Tenants includeInternational Food Market, andPetland. Former tenants include aBed Bath And Beyond,Sam's Club,Walmart andOffice Depot. An indoor shopping center called Mall of India is slated to open in the former Walmart near the end of 2020. It will feature a grocery store, 10 restaurants, and 30+ retail and office spaces.
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.[citation needed]
After Westfield's purchase of the mall, all the signs and usage of the Fox Valley Center logo was discontinued and replaced withWestfield's standard mall brand logo, with the shortenedFox Valley name. 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.[citation needed]
In 2009, A Tilted Kilt Bar & Grill opened between theCarson's and Macy's wings. In 2012, a Tony Sacco's Pizza restaurant also opened across the Tilted Kilt in the same hall along withBooks-A-Million by Macy's.Round 1 opened in 2017.[5]
On August 19, 2010, aChick-fil-A restaurant opened outside the mall.[6]
On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Carson's would be closing as parent companyThe Bon-Ton was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018.[7]
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 leavesJCPenney andMacy's as the only remaining anchors.
For the Halloween season,Halloween City served as a temporary anchor for the mall in the old Sears in 2019.
On Thanksgiving 2019, Fox Valley Mall opened a new "Center Park" that transformed the mall's formerly unused central courtyard into a public gathering area with green space, places to sit, artwork, and other amenities by the old Carson's. Before Center Park, there was an indoor ice skating rink that moved into an abandoned store, and the ice skating rink will reopen there in November 2020.
In early 2020, Fox Valley Mall began construction on an addition to Center Park, a two-level 8,000 square foot "tree house" that would connect Center Park to the mall and serve as an additional gathering space.
In late fall 2020, the abandoned Sears began demolition and continued the Fox Valley Mall 2.0 Redevelopment Plan, which later added luxury apartments and other amenities.[8][9]
The mall is situated onIllinois Route 59 betweenU.S. 34 and East New York Street / West Aurora Avenue, with 8,006 car parking spaces.[10] The area around the mall has been developed on the east and west sides of the road, withWestridge Court featuring over 30 stores on the Naperville side of Route 59. Other stores in the area includeMeijer,Target,Guitar Center,Petsmart,At Home,Marshalls,Ross Stores,Dollar Tree,Jo-Ann Fabrics,Burlington Coat Factory, and other retailers and restaurants.
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