20th century Fox Valley Center was a
joint-venture between the Urban Investment and Development Company and the
Homart Development Company. Fox Valley Mall is a enclosed mall. It opened and was completed on July 30, 1975.
Sears and
Marshall Field's were already open before the mall's opening date, and they opened on February 18, 1975. Fox Valley Center would open with space for 160 shops and services.
JCPenney opened on April 6, 1977 with their
Orland Square store, and finally
Lord & Taylor opened on August 7, 1977. This was later followed by marketing for home builders and office development in the area marketed as Fox Valley Villages. Sales at the mall were stated at $115 million in 1977. Lord & Taylor closed on February 14, 1996 and was sold to
Carson Pirie Scott (later known as
Carson's). The Carson Pirie Scott opened on November 2, 1996.
21st century The
Westfield Group purchased Fox Valley Center in 2002. After Westfield's purchase of the mall, all the signs and usage of the Fox Valley Center logo were discontinued and replaced with ''Westfield's
standard mall brand logo, with the shortened Fox Valley'' name. In the same time period there was an extensive renovation of the mall for the first time in its history. This removed the mall's large gardens and plants that were spread out throughout the mall. After Centennial Real Estate's purchase of 80% interest in the mall in 2015, all "Westfield" signs were replaced with "Fox Valley Mall" signs. Marshall Field's was renamed
Macy's in 2006. In 2009, A Tilted Kilt Bar & Grill opened between the
Carson's and Macy's wings. In 2012, a Tony Sacco's Pizza restaurant also opened across the Tilted Kilt in the same hall along with
Books-A-Million by Macy's.
Round 1 opened in 2017. On August 19, 2010, a
Chick-fil-A restaurant opened outside the mall. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Carson's would be closing as parent company
The Bon-Ton was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018. On May 31, 2018,
Sears announced that it would also be closing its Fox Valley Mall location as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 2, 2018. This leaves
JCPenney and
Macy's as the only remaining anchors. For the Halloween season,
Halloween City served as a temporary anchor for the mall in the old Sears in 2019. On Thanksgiving 2019, Fox Valley Mall opened a new "Center Park" that transformed the mall's formerly unused central courtyard into a public gathering area with green space, places to sit, artwork, and other amenities by the old Carson's. Before Center Park, there was an indoor ice skating rink that moved into an abandoned store, and the ice skating rink will reopen there in November 2020. In early 2020, Fox Valley Mall began construction on an addition to Center Park, a two-level 8,000 square foot "tree house" that would connect Center Park to the mall and serve as an additional gathering space. In late fall 2020, the abandoned Sears began demolition and continued the Fox Valley Mall 2.0 Redevelopment Plan, which later added luxury apartments and other amenities.
Other shopping centers In 1989, a shopping center outside the mall called New York Square was built. It features
Kohl's, a former
OfficeMax, and other stores. A year later in 1990, another new shopping center, Fox Valley Commons, was built across from the mall. Tenants include International Food Market, and
Petland. Former tenants include a
Bed Bath & Beyond,
Sam's Club,
Walmart and
Office Depot. An indoor shopping center called Mall of India is slated to open in the former Walmart near the end of 2020. It will feature a grocery store, 10 restaurants, and 30+ retail and office spaces.
Proposed shopping center In 1979, American Income Properties proposed a shopping center south of the Fox Valley Center on the Northeast corner of Route 59 and Ogden Avenue. the proposed center was to have 3 anchors
Carson Pirie Scott,
Montgomery Ward and
Wieboldt's. AIP also planned malls by the
River Oaks Center and
Orland Square Mall. They Opened
Orland Court south of Orland Square in 1981, but they never developed shopping centers by River Oaks and Fox Valley. ==Area==