One of the final pieces of the Spring Hill Mall redevelopment puzzle fell into place Monday when the West Dundee Village Board voted to purchase the failing shopping center for $7 million.
Earlier this year, the village agreed to buy two of the mall’s vacant anchor stores formerly occupied by Macy’s and Sears. Monday’s purchase deal also includes the vacant Carson’s anchor store as well as the Cinemark movie theater, which remains open.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Trustee Thomas Price, who introduced the motion Monday executing the purchase agreement. The vote was unanimous.
The purchase of the Sears store is already complete, and the deal to buy the old Macy’s store will close next month, officials said. Closing on the rest of the mall property will take place early next year.
Kohl’s is the only mall anchor store that remains in operation and the company is retaining ownership of the space.
“Once we have a single owner for these parcels, we will try to simplify the ownership rights and covenants that apply. And once we have that done, we start to market the property,” Village President Chris Nelson said.
The property will likely be marketed for a mix of commercial and residential uses, but the board wants to see “where the development community wants to go,” Nelson said. “There are certain things we will not entertain, like warehouses and intense uses that attract a lot of truck traffic. … There will still be some retail there.”
West Dundee officials have long wanted to revitalize the mall property and in 2016 supported a $35 million renovation proposed by the then-owner. The village planned to offer a tax incentive to help with the work needed but the idea ended up stalling, Nelson said.
The property was later sold Kohan Retail Investment Group. When it became apparently Spring Hill wasn’t bouncing back to what had once been a robust retail development, West Dundee officials started reaching out to them about purchasing the mall, he said.
“When we started down this path, we expected it would be a much longer trajectory,” Nelson said. “I think one can look in other communities and see it can be difficult, especially if the property owners are unwilling to sell or are maybe not as rational in terms of the cost. Also, you have to have a board and citizenry that are supportive of it. And thankfully, we have both.”
The mall opened in 1980 on 65 acres off Route 31 on a site that straddled the villages of West Dundee and Carpentersville. The first two anchor stores were Marshall Field & Co. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., which were later joined by fellow anchors JCPenney, Bergner’s (which later became Carson Pirie Scott & Co. and then Carson’s) and Joseph Spiess Co., a locally owned department store that moved from downtown Elgin and closed its Spring Hill store in 1994.
Inside were the typical mall stores of the era, including The Gap, The Limited, Waldenbooks and Radio Shack.
As consumers’ shopping habits changed, Spring Hill — like other malls in surrounding communities — started struggling to draw shoppers. A major renovation closed off a portion of the mall to create the movie theater complex with the hope that the mall could become an entertainment hub, something that never materialized.
Over the last dozen years, anchor stores and other major retailers started started shutting down operations. JCPenney closed in 2011, followed by Carson’s in 2018, Sears and Macy’s in 2020, and Barnes & Noble in 2021.
Nelson said he remembers the mall’s heyday. He grew up in Schaumburg but frequently visited Spring Hill, he said.
“We would come out here, especially at Christmastime when Woodfield was too busy. I have an attachment to it,” he said. “(But) the property was built for a single purpose, and it’s no longer valid, so we need to start fresh.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
