SouthPark Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Rock Island County and the List of municipalities in Illinois, ninth-most populous in Illinois outside ...

. As Moline is part of the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, 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; the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchange with I-75 in ...

and

Illinois Route 5 Illinois Route 5 (IL 5) is a four to six lane state highway 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 ...

(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 Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

. The current owner and operator is Kohan. 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. Macerich from 2012 to 2025. Before 1998,

General Growth Properties GGP Inc. (an initialism of General Growth Properties) was an American Commercial property, commercial real estate company and the second-largest shopping mall operator in the United States. It was founded by brothers Martin Bucksbaum, Martin, Ma ...

managed and owned the property. The mall's anchor stores are

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 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 company a ...

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized in all caps as DICK'S Sporting Goods) is an American chain of sporting goods stores founded in 1948 by Richard "Dick" Stack. It is the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States and is listed ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

, and

Von Maur Von Maur, Inc. ( ) is an American department store chain based in Davenport, Iowa. Founded in 1872, the chain operates over 36 locations across the United States, primarily in the Midwestern United States, Midwest. History Beginnings In 1872 ...

. 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 ...

. 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 in square metres or square feet) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the bui ...

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 mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

, 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 and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

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 Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

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 Walgreens is an American pharmacy store chain. It is the second largest in the United States, behind CVS Pharmacy. As of March 2025, the company operated more than 8,700 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has been the subject of a number of lawsuit ...

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, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

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 Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 census, making it Iowa's thi ...

. 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

. On March 23, 1995, an

OfficeMax OfficeMax is an American office supplies retailer founded in 1988. As an independent chain, it was the third-largest office supply retailer in the United States. Following a 2013 merger, it is currently a brand and subsidiary of Office Depot. ...

store opened outside the mall. The

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

Macerich The Macerich Company ( ) 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 propert ...

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 December 11, 2017, an

Olive Garden Olive Garden is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. It is a unit of Darden Restaurants, Inc., which is headquartered in Orange County, Florida. As of 2022, Olive Garden restaurants accounted for ...

restaurant opened in the mall's surrounding area. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that

would be closing as the parent,

Bon-Ton Stores Bonton Holdings Inc. operating as Bonton () was an American department store chain and group founded in 1898. It operated in Western New York, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and throughout the Midwestern United States. The former York, Pennsy ...

, was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018. In August 2018,

Ashley HomeStore Ashley Home Stores Ltd. (doing business as Ashley and still known as Ashley Furniture HomeStore in some countries) is an American furniture store chain that sells Ashley Furniture products. Opened in 1997, the chain comprises over 2,000 locations ...

opened a store in the space near the former

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 Kohan Retail Investment 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