The Village Mall is located two and a half hours from Chicago and 45 minutes from Champaign, IL in the town of Danville, IL. The mall is currently anchored by Carson's, Ross Dress For Less, AMC, County Market, Burlington Coat Factory,and several smaller stores.
Village Mall first began development in the 1970s with one of the original anchor stores, Ary-Way Discount Store in 1972, which would later become Target.
Also, National Supermarket ans Meis Department Store, which would become Eder-Beerman.
The Mall itself opened in 1975, and JCPenney opened in 10 years later.
Sears previously had a store downtown and was given an incentive to come and anchor the mall in the 90s.
By 1999, Target had closed and the store was filled with Hobby Lobby.
In 2001, three JCPenney stores closed, including the location at Village Mall.
In 2004, part of the mall was renovated to accommodate a Goody's Clothing Store.
The former JCPenney was filled by Steve & Barry's in 2006.
In 2007, several stores came to the mall, like Old Navy and Dunham's Sports.
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| US Route-1/ 136/ Vermilion Street |
Hobby Lobby, Goody's, and Steve & Barry's all closed in 2008, two of which because of bankruptcy, which also rumored because of these closures, the mall would be closed, or be converted to other uses, but fortunately never happened.
Pet Supplies Plus opened in part of the former Hobby Lobby.
The last restaurant closed in the food court in 2010 and Elder-Beerman was rebranded as Carson's in 2011 and Dunham's Sports filled the rest of the former Hobby Lobby.
The former Goody's space was filled by Ross in 2012, and in 2013, Burlington Coat Factory opened in the former JCPenney/ Steve & Barry's store
Sears announced in September 2014, that the mall store would be closed by the end of the year.
Here are pictures of the mall from August 2013:
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| Former Meis/ Elder-Beerman store |
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| Former JCPenney store |
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| funny seeing Cellular One is still around |
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| One of the last remaining Garfield's restaurants still open. |
Although most of the mall seems empty, there are still enough stores open to keep it running, and the mall has such a strong 90s feel too it, with live trees and the store signage that dates back to a time not to long forgotten.
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| Former JCPenney, now Burlington Coat Factory. |
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| Kmart in adjacent plaza |
If anyone has any stories, or pictures of the mall, feel free to post and comment below.
Thank you for reading.
Still open in 2016 Burlington gets a lot of business still as well as Carson's. Slumberland opened where Sears was. It's Danville's only movie theater, so that helps. A lot of empty stores, but still gets business. Jo-Ann Fabric is also new and hopping.
ReplyDeleteI remember a Burger King just inside mall when we lived in the neighborhood back in 1998-1999,also a Pizza restaurant near the center of the mall.
ReplyDeleteAs of May 2022 (My most recent visit), Village Mall is struggling badly. In 2018 Carson left when the parent company The-Bon-Ton went bankrupt. Slumberland (Formerly Sears) closed off-mall access, effectively killing the entire southern wing. Dunham's also had their entrance closed, although I think it's open most days. The mall itself is doing badly, maybe 3 of the once 40 or so stores operate. The old food court neons have been taken out sadly, and the whole food court continues to sit walled off and vacant. When I visited the lights were off in some areas, especially near the old Carson's. Burlington seems to be the only good foot traffic for the mall. The rest sadly sits empty and dying, I wonder how many more years Village Mall has.
ReplyDelete