The main building at Chicago’s Ford City Mall will shut down permanently in about five weeks due to what city attorneys have described as unsafe conditions, ending its more than 60-year run as a top retail destination for the Southwest Side.
“The main mall will be shuttered June 22 at noon,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Greg Janes said Friday at a hearing in Cook County court.
Janes said the city and property owner Namdar Realty Group negotiated an order to close the massive indoor mall, and that Judge Leonard Murray would sign it. The city did not seek to close the property’s North Mall, an outdoor strip center where retailers such as Planet Fitness operate, or the outlying businesses and restaurants including IHOP and the AMC Ford City 14 movie theater, all of which will remain open.
The order ends weeks of legal wrangling between the city, Namdar and the few stores still doing business in the mostly vacant indoor mall. Retail giant JCPenney, Ford City’s anchor tenant, told the court that the city’s attempts to shut down the mall beginning in April did not leave enough time to close their businesses in an orderly fashion.
“Despite our best efforts to remain at Ford City Mall, JCPenney will close this location to the public by June 21, 2026, as a result of the city of Chicago’s motion to vacate the property due to safety concerns not addressed by the landlord,” a JCPenney spokesperson said Friday. “We are actively exploring opportunities for a new store location in the surrounding Chicago area.”
More than a dozen smaller stores such as Sam’s Furniture also raised questions about the closure.
“As currently framed, the relief requested by the City will have the immediate and irreversible effect of destroying Petitioner’s businesses and depriving Petitioner of any meaningful opportunity to mitigate his damages by removing inventory, winding down operations, or relocating the business,” according to a May 12 court filing by Sami Bader, who owns and operates five businesses in the mall, including Sam’s Furniture.
The mall property, opened in 1965 at 7601 S. Cicero Ave., has been plagued by a malfunctioning fire suppression system and “huge water leaks, burst sprinkler heads, and blown booster pumps,” as well as “open wiring, dirty conditions, and poor lighting,” according to an April 10 court filing by the city.
Fixing everything would be costly, and Namdar Realty Group has already sought to sell the main building.
Chicago Fire Department Lt. Robert Steffens also told Judge Murray in April that fixing the fire suppression system wouldn’t make the indoor mall safe. The water pipes date to the 1960s, and the antiquated system could have leaked out several million gallons of water in just the past several years. If the liquid settled into the soil underneath the mall, it could threaten the mall’s structural integrity.
“We could have a portion of the mall collapse into a great sinkhole,” Steffens said.
City officials said the fire suppression system was restored to working order on April 17. Albert Barr of Planet Fitness asked Janes at Friday’s hearing whether shutting down the main mall would affect the fire suppression systems for the North Mall or other buildings. Janes said it would not.
“The (judge’s) order requires that the fire suppression system remain functional,” he said.
The court will hold a June 29 hearing to ensure the shutdown happens safely and without adverse impacts on the North Mall and other businesses, Janes said.
Ford City Mall, a manufacturing site for B-29 bombers during World War II, was for generations of Chicagoans a popular and vibrant shopping destination. It had more than 100 stores during its heyday, but the rise of online retail forced many tenants to abandon Ford City, leaving long stretches of the indoor mall entirely vacant. New York-based Namdar, an investor known for buying up distressed retail, bought it for about $16 million in 2019.
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Kurv Industrial, a national developer of distribution and logistics buildings, put forward a plan last summer to buy the indoor mall and replace it with a collection of warehouses. Ald. Derrick Curtis, 18th, whose ward includes Ford City Mall, has said he supports the site’s redevelopment.
That proposal still needs approvals from the Chicago Plan Commission and the full City Council.
