SouthPark Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

. As Moline is part of the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

, the mall serves the population of these cities. The mall is located southwest of the intersection of

Interstate 74 } Interstate 74 (I-74) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an interchange with I-80 in Davenport, Iowa (Quad Cities); the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchange ...

and

Illinois Route 5 Illinois Route 5 (IL 5) is a four-lane road in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, that runs from U.S. Route 67 (US 67) in Rock Island to the interchange of Interstate 80 (I-80) and the toll-free portion of I-88, a distance ...

(John Deere Road) at 4500 16th Street. SouthPark Mall is one of two regional malls in the Quad Cities area, the other being NorthPark Mall in

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

. The current owner and operator is

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 ...

. The mall had been operated by the

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

, Inc., from 1998 to 2011. Before 1998, General Growth Properties managed and owned the property. The mall's anchor stores are

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and Von Maur. There is 1 vacant anchor store that was once

Younkers Younkers Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer had evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa ...

. The one-level mall has over 60 stores and a

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

of 825,000 square feet.

History

SouthPark Mall was built by General Growth Properties at a cost of $12 million on of land that General Growth purchased in 1966.

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

, Petersen Harned Von Maur, and

were the mall's three original anchors when it opened on February 27, 1974. SouthPark has been expanded twice:

was added in 1978, while

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and 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 ...

were added in 1990.

closed in early 2001 when the chain went out of business, and the anchor space remained vacant for three years.

eventually leased and they rebuilt the space, which they then opened in 2004. A

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

pharmacy operated in the mall until 2003, when a new free-standing store was built off-site;

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

opened a store in Walgreens' place in 2006, but in May 2013

closed their location due to poor sales at both

metro locations, the other in

Davenport, IA Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

. The mall has struggled to keep tenants since the turn of the century, the mall used to be full of national retailers, but now nearly half of the store fronts are filled with local or regional retailers. Most of the national retailers that left went to NorthPark Mall in

. The Sears store closed in October 2013 as part of the national retailer's plan to reduce expenses. Coming not long after the closing of an Old Navy store, Sears' departure left SouthPark with four anchors. In September 2013, the city of Moline approved a TIF for the mall area, with

and the city working on a plan of redevelopment. A two-phase redevelopment plan, which will eventually involve substantial updates to the appearance and shopping convenience, were slated to begin in April 2014, at which time demolition of the 1990 addition – containing the former Sears and food court areas – were slated to begin. Additional renovation is slated to begin in 2015. Renovation of the main concourse of the mall was completed in November 2014. The mall demolished the former Sears store and the food court, a

was built where Sears once stood. In 2015

worked on landscaping around the mall property, as well as repaving parking lots and bridges entering the mall. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Younkers would be closing as the parent,

Bon-Ton Stores Bon-Ton Holdings Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded in 1898. After rapid expansion in the 1990s and early 2000s, the original company had financial troubles, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2018 ...

, was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018. In August 2018, Ashley HomeStore opened a store in the space near the former Younkers store.

References

*
Just 25 Years Ago, Malls Changed It All
by Jonathan Turner, ''Moline Daily Dispatch'', 1999

External links

SouthPark Mall
{{Shopping malls in Illinois Simon Property Group Shopping malls in Illinois Buildings and structures in Moline, Illinois Tourist attractions in the Quad Cities Quad Cities Tourist attractions in Rock Island County, Illinois Economy of the Quad Cities Shopping malls established in 1974