Opening date 1973 (1973) Management Freehold Management | Developer Randhurst Corp. Owner Freehold Management | |
Location Matteson, Illinois, USA Closing date January 7, 2015 (2015-01-07) | ||
Lincoln Mall was a shopping mall located at the corner of U.S. Route 30 and Cicero Avenue in Matteson, Illinois, United States.
History
Lincoln Mall opened in 1973 with anchors Carson Pirie Scott, Montgomery Ward, Wieboldt's, and JCPenney. The center was developed by Randhurst Corp, the same developer consisting of Wieboldt's and Carson's executives who developed Randhurst Mall and Lakehurst Mall. Wieboldt's closed in the 1980s. The mall underwent a renovation in 1993. In 1995, Sears opened in the abandoned Wieboldt's location. Montgomery Ward closed their store in 1999 and went bankrupt soon after. In 2000, JCPenney closed their location in Lincoln Mall. Due to the loss of two anchors, mall traffic declined and many stores began to vacate Lincoln Mall.
On Friday, May 11, 2012, Sears began a store-closing sale. On June 1, 2012, Lincoln Mall was scheduled for a court ordered sale by auction.
Lincoln Mall was in the process of undergoing a $115-million redevelopment in hopes of attracting more retailers to Lincoln Mall. The plan included a multi-screen movie theater and a four-lane road to connect Cicero Avenue and Lincoln Highway. To make room for the new plans some parts of the mall were demolished, including the former JCPenney and Montgomery Ward stores. In 2007, two new stores opened at the site. Target, with a 126,000-square-foot (11,700 m2) store, opened in July and JCPenney returned to Lincoln Mall with a 104,000-square-foot (9,700 m2) store in October.
In August 2013, representatives of Matteson attempted to sue the mall owners and order that it be closed, due to fire, safety, and building code violations, including exposed electrical wiring, an inoperative fire sprinkler system, blocked fire exits, a crumbling roof, and a damaged foundation.
On November 11, 2014, Cook County Judge Thomas Condon ordered that the mall be closed permanently as of January 7, 2015, with the exception of Carson Pirie Scott (whose building is owned separately by its parent company), which will remain open. Operating funds that owner Michael Kohan initially provided for the mall's upkeep had been depleted and nothing remained to keep the mall operating after December. Kohan has provided a court-appointed receiver with only $100,000 in the preceding 15 months to pay for the mall's repairs, maintenance, and staffing, while the number of remaining tenants paying rent was insufficient to sustain daily operations. The mall would have needed to replace several exits and repair its electrical and air conditioning systems in order to be brought up to code.
In late 2016, photos of the abandoned mall surfaced, as part of a photo project by photographer Seph Lawless .