Fashion Outlets of Chicago is an enclosed

outlet mall An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...

located in

Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,202. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that. Whi ...

, United States. Located within the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

, the mall lies east of

Interstate 294 Interstate 294 (I-294) is a tolled auxiliary Interstate Highway in northeastern Illinois. It forms the southern portion of the Tri-State Tollway in Illinois. I-294 runs from South Holland at I-80/ I-94 and Illinois Route 394 (IL 394) to N ...

and

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport , sometimes referred to as, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is the main international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, ...

and is adjacent to

Rosemont Theatre The Rosemont Theatre is a concert hall in Rosemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The venue, which has seats for 4,400 people, opened in 1995 and hosts many different musical artists and shows. It is located near O'Hare International Airport, F ...

. Opening on August 1, 2013, the mall is owned by

Macerich Macerich ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 properties comprisi ...

, and was co-developed by AWE Talisman. Featuring more than 140 stores, the mall was noted for its differences from a regular outlet mall. The mall totals , with

anchor stores In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. W ...

Bloomingdale's Outlet,

Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washington, ...

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

and

Nordstrom Rack Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom. As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...

along with other retailers such as

Gucci Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragrance ...

and

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer. He first gained notoriety working for Cerruti and then for many others, including Allegri, Bagutta and Hilton. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expande ...

. Because of its close proximity to O'Hare International Airport, the mall was self-touted as "the perfect layover destination", and by 2018, 57.6 million tourists had visited the mall.

History

2009–2014: Development and opening

Plans for a new mall in Rosemont, Illinois, east of

, were announced on March 4, 2009, and of land were sold to a joint venture between AWE Talisman and American mall operator

at a cost of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

10.4 million. Named Fashion Outlets of Chicago, the mall was planned to feature over 140 stores ranging from luxury to casual, and would feature outlets of upscale retailers such as

and

. Construction would start in November 2011, costing around US$250 million with a planned opening date of 2012. The concept differentiated from a regular

, as it was enclosed, compared to other outlet malls, and was not after a regular "outlet model" concept. Grand opening ceremonies were held on August 1 through 4, 2013. Due to the influx of shoppers that would be visiting in its opening weeks, Rosemont officials agreed to pay tolls for shoppers traveling on Interstate 294. The mall opened as the first fully enclosed mall to open in the Chicago metropolitan area in over 20 years. At its opening, the mall comprised 530,000 square feet, with Bloomingdale's Outlet,

Neiman Marcus Last Call Neiman is a surname. It may refer to: *Abraham Lincoln Neiman (1875–1970) *Carrie Marcus Neiman (1883–1953) *David Neiman (1921–2004), Russian-American rabbi, archaeologist, and historian *Joan Neiman (1920–2022), Canadian politician from ...

, and

as the

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s when it opened. Macerich chairman Arthur Weiner touted the mall as "the perfect layover destination," as amenities for travelers from O'Hare International Airport ranged from transportation from the airport to the mall via shuttle buses and early check-in and baggage check. Following the inital opening, the mall had won the

MAPIC MAPIC (''Le marché international professionnel de l’implantation commerciale et de la distribution'') is an international retail real estate show held in Cannes, France, each November. Organised by Reed MIDEM, and lasting for 3 days, the event ...

award for "Best Outlet Centre in the World" and was a recipient of the

International Council of Shopping Centers The International Council of Shopping Centers, doing business as ICSC, is the global trade association of what it calls the "Marketplaces Industry" (i.e., shopping centers, shopping malls, and all other retail real estate). Founded in 1957, it fe ...

(ICSC) U.S. Design and Development Gold award in 2014.

2014–present: Operation and failed expansion

Macerich proposed an expansion plan to extend the Fashion Outlets of Chicago in May 2015. Demolition for

and rebuilding it would be a possibility for the expansion plan due to the economic impact the mall had on the village of Rosemont, and the theatre had struggled to compete with venues in Chicago. By 2018, 57.6 million tourists had visited the mall. Rosemont gave approval for the expansion on May 10, 2018, though, at the time, specific plans for the mall could not be shared as it was "too early in the process," though the expansion would increase size of the mall by 50% at a leasable retailer space of . The expansion was called off in late-2020 due to multiple factors, including the economic consequences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At around 7pm, a shooting occurred on March 25, 2022, which killed one man and a wounded one person. Rosemont police referred to the incident as a targeted incident rather than a

mass shooting There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 200 ...

, and said the suspect had fled and fled in a car with "other unknown suspects." The shooter was later arrested on March 30, 2022, and it was identified that the shooting had started as a conflict between two parties, which had involved both the shooter and the victim; the other person injured was an innocent bystander.

Architecture

Walkable Rosemont from the air (13942408124)

Fashion Outlets of Chicago has a gross leasable area of . With two levels, the mall features touches of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

and other high-end stones throughout the mall. Unlike most outlet malls, the mall is one of few to be an enclosed mall and is also climate controlled. Throughout the mall, large scale interactive art-pieces can be seen in concourses, as the mall had commissioned 10

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

artists from The Art Initiative. From the exterior of the mall, of digital

LED displays A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

are placed used for

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

, with a total of 11 displays covering the mall in total.

Tenants

Upon its opening in 2013, Bloomingdale's Outlet,

, and

served as

within the mall. The

soon followed as another anchor store, opening in fall 2016 as the 10th Nordstrom Rack within the

. In addition to anchor stores, the mall features around more than 140 stores and dining options, including sit-down restaurants anchored by Prasino and Villagio, along with a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

on the first level. Since opening, new stores have opened throughout the mall, including a

Lindt Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, where its ...

store on July 17, 2015, and the first

Aritzia Aritzia LP is a Economy of Canada, Canadian women's fashion brand founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Brian Hill (CEO Aritzia), Brian Hill in 1984. Aritzia sells a variety of lifestyle apparel through various upscale retail stores acro ...

store in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

on December 16, 2022. Notable store closures in the mall include the anchor store Neiman Marcus Last Call following announcements that it would close in 2020, along with a

Disney Store The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products seg ...

which closed on March 23, 2021.

Transportation

Public transportation to Fashion Outlets of Chicago via bus is provided by

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US * Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

, and includes the following bus lines: * 303 Forest Park/Rosemont * 326 West Irving Park * 332 River Road/York Road * 811 Rosemont Entertainment Circulator * 895 95th Street/Rosemont/Schaumburg Express Shuttle buses are accessible to travelers from the nearby

and typically offers 30 shuttles per day. In addition to bus transportation, public transportation by rail is accessible via

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

's Rosemont station and

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , o ...

's Rosemont station. Motorists can use an exit ramp on Interstate 294 close to the mall that opened in late-2011 and access the six-story parking garage connected to the mall.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Illinois Outlet malls in the United States Shopping malls established in 2013 Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois Shopping malls in Cook County, Illinois Rosemont, Illinois 2013 establishments in Illinois Macerich