Bloomingdale Yard construction ushers in transformation of Stratford Square to ‘The Grove’

Search Stratford Square on YouTube, and you’ll see videos of what was a “dead mall” or the “most depressing mall in America,” each with tens of thousands of views.

Bloomingdale leaders intervened, acquiring the old department stores and finally the core of the mall itself. Looking to make a fresh start, the village had the entire mall demolished, save for the last anchor retailer, Kohl’s.

“If they didn’t, what was there before would still be there right now,” Village Administrator Pietro Scalera said.

Now, there are signs, not of a “dying mall,” but of new life: Vertical construction has begun on the massive property, one of the first major steps toward the larger redevelopment of the area into “The Grove at Bloomingdale.” The owner of the Naperville Yard is bringing a similar, roughly 100,000-square-foot indoor sports and family recreation hub to the former mall site.

“It’s exciting because it’s the initiation of the transformation of ‘The Grove’ area,” Scalera said.

That transformation calls for a pedestrian-friendly mix of restaurant, entertainment, retail and residential spaces. The village is partnering with the Bloomingdale Park District to coordinate events for the lawn area — think a seasonal farmers market, bag tournaments, concerts or movies in the park — before it’s converted into an NHL-sized ice rink for the winter. Renderings also show a central lake.

When it comes to new restaurants, officials can’t name names just yet because of contract negotiations on the sale of various parcels to them. The village is also working on finalizing the contract with a developer planning to construct luxury apartments at “The Grove.”

“I’m really looking forward to the end of 2027 when we are hoping to have a number of the restaurants that we’re currently in the process of negotiating with, opening their locations here in Bloomingdale,” Scalera said.

The village has installed all of the municipal water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure. In the coming months, the village will begin working on the main common areas, including the large lawn and the lake — a “central focus” of the development.

The village issued bonds to fund all the infrastructure work for “The Grove.”

Bloomingdale is bringing the redevelopment plans to life with Segovia Partners, Gravity Architecture & Design, Peak Construction Corporation and Christopher B. Burke Engineering.

“We want people to want to come to ‘The Grove’ because of the experience,” Village President Franco Coladipietro said late last year in announcing the official site plans. “You have this opportunity to have restaurants where you’re essentially eating on the water kind of a feel.”

Without village intervention, the mall would have continued to languish, officials have stressed.

“This development really is moving forward because of his leadership and the board’s initiative to take a problem and work to resolve it for the betterment of our community,” Scalera said of Coladipietro and village trustees.

To that end, Bloomingdale Yard will offer indoor fields and programming for both children and adults near the free-standing Kohl’s store. The Yard is also expected to run a full-service child care center.

It meets “one of the uses that residents had pointed out in the survey that we did way back when we first started all of this, and that was a facility that allowed for indoor activities and training and games,” Scalera said.

Scalera said he’s heard a positive response from not only residents.

“But people that live outside of our community, as well as people within the retail industry … are amazed that the village was bold enough to lead in purchasing a struggling mall and taking the steps to turn it into something that the community will be proud of,” he said.