2023 likely to be Spring Hill Mall’s last holiday
Jennifer Moore couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness as she visited Spring Hill Mall.
The 34-year-old Lake in the Hills woman brought her three children to the mall for one last visit with Santa and to say goodbye to the mall she enjoyed as a teen.
“It’s kind of sad,” she said, referring to the largely vacant mall that straddles Carpentersville and West Dundee. “But it’s kind of normal ... it’s kind of the way malls are going.”
Though the future of the Spring Hill Mall property remains unclear, 2023 likely will be the last year the mall itself welcomes holiday shoppers.
The village of West Dundee has already purchased buildings that once housed two of the mall’s anchors — Sears and Macy’s — and expects to close on the main portion of the mall and former Carson Pirie Scott store building early next year. While the village has no formal plans for the property, West Dundee officials have said they plan to demolish the mall and hope to replace it with a mixed-use development that includes housing, restaurants, shops and other entertainment venues.
At its height, the mall, which opened in 1980, featured several national retailers and was a draw for the region.
Longtime West Dundee Village Administrator Joseph Cavallaro said the success of the holiday shopping season at one time was measured by how close the parked cars in the mall’s parking lot came to the ring road.
“That’s not the case this year,” he added.
Moore also remembers a time when the mall was bustling with activity. As a teen, she landed her first job working for Limited Too in the mall.
“It would always be super busy,” she said — a stark contrast to a recent weekend where the mall’s parking lot was largely empty and there was no line to see Santa.
Others echoed similar sentiments.
“It used to be very busy,” said Tadeo Silva of Carpentersville, who also stopped by the mall recently to visit Santa with his young daughter and relatives. “It’s kind of sad ... it used to be very packed.”
Today, the few remaining tenants fill the main corridor, while other mall areas are vacant. Only a handful of national retailers, like Bath & Body Works, remain. Sbarro, a staple of mall food courts, recently closed up shop.
New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, which owns the mall, could not be reached for comment. But earlier this year, a Kohan official confirmed the mall had switched to month-to-month leases with its tenants to accommodate a request from West Dundee.
Kohan officials also confirmed it was in negotiations with West Dundee to sell the mall.
Cavallaro said negotiations are about “85 percent” complete, and the village still expects to close on the mall property in the first quarter of 2024.