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Daily Herald opinion: Suburban towns moving quickly to reimagine former mall properties

The demise of two regional malls could have created a headache for three suburban communities.

Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale and Spring Hill Mall, which straddles West Dundee and Carpentersville, were poised to become massive eyesores like other abandoned shopping centers nationwide. But Bloomingdale and West Dundee refused to wait and let such a scenario play out. Instead, the towns started buying former department store buildings at the mall locations.

Last January, Bloomingdale finished its acquisition of the Stratford Square site at Gary Avenue and Schick Road. The village invested $17.25 million to purchase several properties, including the former Carson Pirie Scott, Burlington and Sears parcels.

West Dundee made similar moves at Spring Hill.

After acquiring the former Sears and Macy’s buildings, the village bought the rest of the mall in April. West Dundee spent roughly $9.3 million to acquire Spring Hill, including the former Carson’s, Sears and Macy’s stores.

Now that they own the former mall properties, Bloomingdale and West Dundee are working to transform the sites.

Demolition work at the former Stratford Square has gone quickly. The JC Penney and Burlington stores already have been razed. And it appeared over the weekend that significant progress was being made on tearing down the rest of the mall, including the Sears and Carson Pirie Scott buildings.

In a story last month, Alicia Fabbre reported that the Kohl’s store will remain, and the village has worked with the retailer to prepare for its transformation.

Meanwhile, conceptual plans reimagine the Stratford Square area as “The Grove,” a mixed-use development that would include a meandering boardwalk, illuminated fountain towers and a large lawn for events, yoga or ice skating.

As the property owner, the village will work to bring individual users to the new space. Village Administrator Pietro Scalera said the town is already in talks with potential tenants.

In West Dundee, village trustees recently approved a $3.6 million contract for crews to tear down Spring Hill. Fabbre reported that the demolition work, which excludes a Kohl’s store and Cinemark theater, is expected to start sometime in March.

West Dundee officials envision a mixed-use development featuring retail, residential and restaurants and are hopeful demolition and cleanup of the mall property will spark developer interest.

There is no doubt that West Dundee and Bloomingdale made bold decisions when they decided to get involved with redeveloping two massive properties. Had they relied on private developers to acquire Stratford Square and Spring Hill, the wait could have been years, possibly decades.

Someone had to take the first step. We applaud West Dundee and Bloomingdale officials for making that happen.

Instead of the former malls becoming eyesores, we look forward to seeing what both properties could someday become.

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