Remember University Mall In Carbondale, IL? Those Days Are Fading Fast

October 30, 1974. The Carbondale Community High School band played outside a new shopping mall on East Main Street while a woman in a pageant sash stood near the entrance.

Jean Ahern, that year's Miss Illinois, was there for the ribbon-cutting at University Mall. So were people dressed as Winnie the Pooh and Big Bird.

Inside, shoppers walked past Zales Jewelers, Baskin-Robbins, Waldenbooks, Karmelkorn, Regis Hairstylists, and a General Nutrition Center, among other shops.

JCPenney anchored one end of the corridor, and Sears anchored the other, with a four-screen American Multi-Cinema theater planned to open by December. JCPenney had been on the site since 1971.

University Mall in Carbondale, IL

Developers David E. Hocker and Alan Squitieri, both of Owensboro, Kentucky, announced plans that year for an enclosed mall built outward from it, extending east toward a second anchor.

The original plan called for Britt's - a discount department store owned by J. J. Newberry - to anchor that far end.

Britt's construction was completed, but the company defaulted on its lease and never opened. Sears took the space instead.

The mall's address was 1237 East Main Street, at the junction of Route 13 and Route 51, roughly three miles from Southern Illinois University.

University Mall Adds a South Wing and Meis (1979-1980)

By September 1979, construction crews were already working on a new south wing. The addition opened in 1980 and ran to a new anchor at its far end: a department store called Meis, based in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Joining Meis in the new wing were Lerner New York, Spencer Gifts, Pearle Vision, Pier 1 Imports, Kinney Shoes, and Claire's.

The mall was now a multi-wing structure with three anchor stores instead of two. By the early 1990s, two of those three anchors would no longer be operating under their opening names.

In August 1989, Elder-Beerman completed its acquisition of the entire Meis chain, renaming every location, including University Mall.

Nearly two years after that, Sears relocated to the Illinois Centre Mall in nearby Marion, and Montgomery Ward moved into the vacated space.

The chain that had anchored the mall since 1974 was gone, replaced by a department store that would itself be shuttered before the decade was out. Sears had spent 17 years at University Mall.

"University Mall in Carbondale, IL" by MikeKalasnik is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The $35 Million Expansion That Remade the Mall

On March 5, 1991, roughly 200 Carbondale dignitaries gathered for a VIP preview of a new wing at University Mall. The next day, the wing opened to the public.

The new section featured an atrium-style entrance, high ceilings, skylights, a food court, and two new anchor stores - both owned by The May Department Stores Company.

The total cost was $35 million, and the new space added more than 290,000 square feet of leasable retail area.

Venture Stores had actually opened first, in March 1991, with Victoria's Secret, Limited Express, and a relocated Lerner New York following in May.

Montgomery Ward and Famous-Barr both opened on November 1, 1991. Other stores joining the mall at that point included Hibbett Sports, Maurices, and Belden Jewelers.

The opening night was theatrical on purpose: champagne, jazz, formal hosts, and a dress code.

The marketing leaned heavily on the phrase "a new class of shopping." Applebee's opened in the parking lot on April 4, 1995.

At its peak in late 1991, University Mall had five anchor department stores - JCPenney, Montgomery Ward, Famous-Barr, Venture, and Elder-Beerman - more than at any point before or since.

Anchor Closures and Redevelopment at University Mall, 1993–2006

Venture closed its University Mall location in 1993, and K's Merchandise Mart eventually took the space.

Elder-Beerman followed in 1997; its old wing was converted to health offices. Montgomery Ward closed sometime after June 1998.

Each departure left a gap, and the mall reused those spaces in different ways over time. In May 2002, Old Navy arrived.

Later that year, the former Montgomery Ward space was demolished to make way for a new addition that opened in 2003, bringing in a Kerasotes ShowPlace 8 multiplex - which opened May 15 - along with Bed Bath & Beyond and Michaels.

The food court moved in 2004 into the old Elder-Beerman wing, and a Panera Bread opened nearby on May 17.

In 2005, a partnership between GoldenTree InSite Partners and Stoltz Real Estate Partners acquired the mall.

The deal covered 677,000 square feet of gross leasable area plus an adjacent 10 acres earmarked for additional retail development.

A renovation was already underway, with a stated goal of repositioning the property as a stronger destination center.

Famous-Barr became Macy's in 2006, one of several department store nameplates converted nationwide after May Department Stores merged with Federated.

"Former Elder-Beerman - University Mall" by MikeKalasnik is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A $30 Million Loss and a Snapshot of Churn

A $32.6 million loan tied to University Mall was transferred to special servicing in 2007 and closed out with a loss of $30 million - a loss severity of 92 percent.

For context, a loss severity above 50 percent is considered severe; above 90 percent is rare.

K's Merchandise and Michaels both closed in early 2007. Steve & Barry's, which had moved into a former space in 2006, was gone by 2008.

So was Goody's. At the same time, the tenant roster was in constant motion in other ways.

Express and Express Men's shut on January 28, 2008, after nearly 18 years in the mall. Victoria's Secret relocated across the hall into a larger "Pink" prototype space.

Vanity took over Wilson's Leather's vacated spot. A strip of six to eight new stores called "Shops at University" was planned for a 13,900-square-foot lot adjacent to the mall.

Kirlin's Hallmark, which had been in the mall since opening day in 1974, was by then its longest-running tenant.

In October 2012, Ross Dress for Less opened in the space Michaels had vacated, and the former Steve & Barry's space became Shoe Dept. Encore.

University Mall Loses Its Last Traditional Department-Store Anchors

AMC Theatres had taken over the Kerasotes multiplex in 2010 and ran it for eight years before closing it on May 10, 2018.

Macy's put its Carbondale store on a closure list in January 2020 as part of a plan to shut 125 locations nationwide.

The store was set to close in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced all Macy's locations to shut simultaneously on March 17, 2020.

The University Mall store never reopened. JCPenney filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 and listed Carbondale among 154 closing locations, with a target date of around October 2020.

That left the mall without a traditional department-store anchor for the first time since 1974. Bed Bath & Beyond followed in September 2022, one of 150 locations closed in that round.

The cinema did not stay dark long - VIP Cinemas reopened the eight-screen theater in September 2020, roughly two and a half years after AMC's departure.

The department store spaces were not replaced with comparable retail. JCPenney had been in the mall since before it opened as an enclosed center in 1974.

"Food Hall - University Mall" by MikeKalasnik is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

A Museum, Healthcare Offices, and Two Empty Boxes

University Mall has 691,500 square feet of gross leasable area in 2026. Tenants include Ross Dress for Less, Hot Topic, the African American Museum of Southern Illinois, and SIH Medical Group.

Southern Illinois Healthcare runs outpatient rehabilitation inside the mall at 1241 East Main.

The African American Museum of Southern Illinois is also based in the mall, and it is the first African American history museum between Chicago and Chattanooga.

SIU Credit Union completed final paperwork in January 2024 to take over the former Aetna offices inside the building. That move combined staff from three previous locations into an 80,000-square-foot space.

Namdar Realty Group owns the property, while Mason Asset Management manages leasing and has been working to position the mall as a mixed-use destination for healthcare, retail, entertainment, and residential use.

The Carbondale Community Farmers Market held a community event at the mall's theater entrance on March 30, 2024, in a space where a department store used to be.

Two anchor boxes remain available. One is 105,000 square feet, and the other is 110,000 square feet. Together, they account for nearly a third of the mall's total leasable area.