The Shoppes at College Hills, Normal Illinois

The Shoppes at College Hills is a

lifestyle center A lifestyle center (American English), or lifestyle centre (Commonwealth English), is a shopping center or mixed-used commercial development that combines the traditional retail functions of a shopping mall with leisure amenities oriented toward ...

retail complex located in the city of

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, USA. It is one of two major shopping centers in the Bloomington-Normal area (the other being Eastland Mall). The complex was built in 1980 as a small enclosed shopping mall called College Hills Mall, and was demolished and rebuilt in 2005 as an outdoor center. Anchor stores include

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 969 stores in 47 US states. Hobby Lobby is owned by ...

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

Crunch Fitness Crunch Fitness is a U.S.-based brand of over 400 franchised and corporate owned fitness clubs located in the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, and Australia. Founded by Doug Levine in 1989, its current Worldwide CEO is Jim Row ...

, and Von Maur.

History

Plans were first announced for College Hills Mall in 1978. The mall's first stage, comprising a

Carson Pirie Scott Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (also known as Carson's) is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. Sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but still ope ...

department store and other mall shops, opened on August 14, 1980, followed by a

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 ...

anchor on September 25. Two years later in 1982,

was added as a third anchor.

MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

bought the mall in 1986 for $21 million. In 1988, Carson Pirie Scott sold its store to Von Maur. Montgomery Ward closed its store in 1997 and was replaced with a

crafts store in 1999. Also in 1997,

Stein Mart Stein Mart was an American discount men's and women's department store chain based in Jacksonville, Florida. Stein Mart had locations primarily in the Southeast, Texas, and California. Stein Mart stores sold recent trends in clothing for both m ...

added its first central Illinois location to the middle of the mall, while

MC Sports MC Sports was an American retail sporting goods chain. Founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1946, the chain operated 75 stores in the Midwestern United States before permanently closing in 2017 after filing for bankruptcy. History MC Sports beg ...

moved to Eastland. Over time, many other stores relocated to the larger mall as well, leaving College Hills without most of its major chain stores. In addition, Stein Mart closed in October 2000. By June 2004, the only tenants remaining at the mall were the three anchor stores and a Diamond Dave's

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

restaurant. After its closure, the entire mall building was demolished except for Hobby Lobby, Target and Von Maur. Cullinan Properties then redeveloped the property as an outdoor mall, with

Gordmans Gordmans (stylized as gordmans) was a retailer founded in Omaha, Nebraska. The chain is owned by BrandX as of May 2022. In 2019, Stage Stores began converting other retail chains it owned into Gordmans stores, with the goal of having 700 Gordmans ...

being added as a fourth anchor. The new center officially opened in August 2005. The shopping center was purchased in January 2017 by Alto Real Estate funds and M & J Wilkow. In April 2017, it was announced that

was going to be closing which closed sometime in 2017. In January 2018, it was announced that

would move into the vacant

space which opened on June 25, 2018. On August 21, 2018, it was announced that

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

will open a new store at the shopping center in winter 2018 or early winter 2019.

References

External links

The Shoppes at College Hills
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoppes at College Hills Buildings and structures in Bloomington–Normal Shopping malls established in 2005 Shopping malls in Illinois Buildings and structures in McLean County, Illinois