Village 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 ...

Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 33,027. As of 2019, the population was an estimated 30,479. History The area that is now Danville was once home to the Miami, K ...

in the United States. Opened in 1975, the mall's anchor stores are

County Market County Market is a supermarket chain primarily operating in the Midwestern United States. Presently, more than 100 independently owned County Market stores operate in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. County Market is part of the United Nat ...

Pet Supplies Plus Pet Supplies Plus (also styled Pet Supplies "Plus"), founded in 1988 in Redford, Michigan in the United States, is a privately held pet supply retailing corporation with a major presence in the US. As of 2005, it was the third largest specialty p ...

Dunham's Sports Dunham's Sports is an American sporting goods retail chain owned by Dunham's Athleisure Corporation, with stores located in the Midwestern to Southeastern United States. The chain specializes in athletic equipment, clothing, firearms, and other ...

Ross Dress for Less Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California. It is the largest off-price retailer in the U.S.; as of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 stor ...

, Citi Trends,

Jo-Ann Fabrics Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, more commonly known as Jo-Ann (stylized as JOANN), is an American specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics based in Hudson, Ohio. It operates the retail chains ''JOANN Fabrics and Crafts'' and ''Jo-Ann Etc''. The headquarter ...

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

, Shoe Sensation,

Slumberland Furniture Slumberland Furniture, Inc. is a family-owned furniture retailer in the Midwestern United States, founded in 1967. History Slumberland Furniture is headquartered in Oakdale, MN. Originally, the company specialized in mattresses and La-Z-Bo ...

, and

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC and known in some countries as AMC Cinemas or AMC Multi-Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain fou ...

. There are 2 vacant anchor store that were once

Carson's 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 ...

and

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 ...

. It is managed by T Danville, a division of Tabani Group.

History

Village Mall was developed in the 1970s by SES Development Company. The first store to open was an

Ayr-Way L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became known for its women's fas ...

discount store in 1972, which later became

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 ...

. It was followed by a

National Supermarkets National Supermarkets was a grocery chain in both the St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, areas of the United States. Both firms were owned by Loblaw Companies of Canada, but in June 1995, they were sold by Loblaw to Schnucks Market ...

and a

Meis Meis is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the R ...

department store, which was later sold to

Elder-Beerman The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp., commonly known as Elder-Beerman, was an American chain of department stores founded in 1883 and whose last stores closed in 2018. The chain, based primarily in the Midwestern United States, was composed of 31 stor ...

. The mall itself opened in 1975.

J. C. Penney 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, Girl ...

was added in 1985.

, which previously had a store in downtown Danville, was offered an incentive by the city to move to the mall in the early 1990s. Target closed in 1997 due to low sales, and by 1999 had become a

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 ...

. J. C. Penney closed its Danville store in 2001 along with two others in Illinois. In 2004, a wing of the mall was renovated to make room for a Goody's clothing store. The former J. C. Penney store became

Steve & Barry's Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidate ...

in 2006. That same year, several anchors were proposed for the mall, including

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 ...

and

, which replaced National Supermarket, was also expanded. Hobby Lobby, Steve & Barry's, and Goody's all closed in 2008, the latter two due to bankruptcy of the chains. The loss of these stores led to rumors that the mall would close or be converted to other uses, or that Elder-Beerman or Sears would relocate to elsewhere in town. Despite these closures,

opened in part of the former Hobby Lobby. By 2010, the last restaurant had closed in the

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 ...

. Elder-Beerman was re-branded

in 2011, and Dunham's Sports filled the rest of the former Hobby Lobby. The former Goody's space became

in mid-2012. In mid-2013,

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

opened in the former J. C. Penney/Steve & Barry's space. The addition of new stores brought occupancy levels up to 78 percent. In September 2014, Sears announced that it would close the Village Mall store. In mid-2015, a

was added to the mall, while the city of Danville offered an incentive to the

chain to open a store in part of the former Sears. On January 31, 2018,

The 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 ...

announced that Carson's would be closing as part of a plan to close 42 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2018. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that The Bon-Ton Stores would be going out of business due to bankruptcy. AMC closed its theater following showtimes of December 11, 2022. Bailey, Jennifer. "Danville Village Mall movie theater closes." Commercial-News, 12 December, 2022. https://www.commercial-news.com/news/local_news/danville-village-mall-movie-theater-closes/article_43a813ba-7a32-11ed-816f-7f208eacb986.html

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Illinois Shopping malls in Illinois Shopping malls established in 1975 Buildings and structures in Danville, Illinois