Fox River Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping center located in

Grand Chute, Wisconsin Grand Chute (French: ''great fall'' or "large rapids") is a town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The unincorporated community of Apple Creek is partially located in the town. With a population of 22,249, Grand Chute was the larg ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, which serves the

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

metropolitan area. It is a major driver of the local economy and its construction helped spur the growth of the Grand Chute shopping district, which is today known as the "shopping capital of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

". At 1.21 million square feet, it is the largest mall in the state. The anchor stores are

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

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 ...

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, f ...

, and

Scheels All Sports Scheels () is an American privately held, employee-owned and operated sporting goods and entertainment chain store headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. Scheels operates thirty-three store locations in fifteen U.S. states. Its slogan is "Gear. P ...

. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once

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

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 ...

History

Before the mall was built, the Appleton Metropolitan area was considered to be the only major metropolitan area in the United States that did not have a major regional mall to strengthen its economy. Local business leaders got together and encouraged a developer to build a mall. At this time the west side of

Interstate 41 Interstate 41 (I-41) is a north–south Interstate Highway connecting the interchange of I-94 and U.S. Route 41 (US 41), located south of the Wisconsin–Illinois border at the end of the Tri-State Tollway in metropolitan C ...

was largely undeveloped, making it the perfect place to build the mall. Since its opening, this region has been greatly developed and brings many visitors and businesses to the Appleton Metropolitan area. Today it contributes about 1 billion

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

annually to the local economy. The mall opened on July 18, 1984, with one anchor store,

, along with 67 other stores, a movie theater, and 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, a ...

drugstore. Expanded several times in its history, including in 1991 when

Dayton's Dayton's was an American department store chain founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. It operated several local high end department stores throughout Minnesota and the Upper Midwest for almost 100 years. Although it ...

built a new location, which eventually became

Marshall Field's Marshall Field & Company (commonly known as Marshall Field's) was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its eponymous founder, Mar ...

, and is now

. With the last major renovation occurring in 2004, it became the largest mall in Wisconsin in 2014, with 1.2 million square feet. In May 2018, the mall's

location closed. It had been an anchor tenant for 26 years. On December 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 80 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 17, 2019. The Sears and Younkers stores are expected to be redeveloped by the mall in the future, though nothing has yet been announced.

Facilities

The Fox River Mall is located on approximately of land. It is the largest

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 ...

in Wisconsin, with over 140 stores. It has a food court called the Northwoods Café, which includes more than a dozen counter vendors. Fox River Plaza is a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

on the premises. The main campus has a total retail area of . Some stores and restaurants are located in separate outbuildings off the main campus, making for a total retail area of . Fox River Mall is owned by Brookfield Properties

References

External links

Official website
{{General Growth Properties Buildings and structures in Outagamie County, Wisconsin Shopping malls in Wisconsin Tourist attractions in Outagamie County, Wisconsin Brookfield Properties Shopping malls established in 1984