Gurnee Mills is a super-regional shopping mall in Gurnee, Illinois, within the Chicago metropolitan area. With of gross leasable area and ten major anchor stores in its Z-shaped single-story building,"Gurnee Mills: Property Overview", Simon Property Group. it is the third largest shopping mall in Illinois, and one of the four shopping centers in Lake County.
Owned and operated by Simon Property Group, it was an early part of the "Landmark Mills" chain of shopping malls developed by Western Development Corporation (which completed a corporate spin-off in 1994 as Mills Corporation).
Gurnee Mills features a variety of manufacturer outlets in addition to the more typical mall retailers, and it is a popular attraction for tourists visiting the Chicago area, with thousands of tour buses making stops at the mall each year. The mall draws more than 20million visitors each year.
History Background The land where Gurnee Mills stands today was plotted out as part of Section 16 of Warren Township, and most of it was owned by the prominent Lamb family from 1837until sold to the mall's developers in 1988. The corner of Grand Avenue and Hunt Club Road was long known as Lamb's Corners, where various members of the family farmed and operated a long succession of small businesses. When the latest generation of the family sold the land to be developed, they had some conditions, primarily that the oldest trees on the property be preserved and the wetlands along the highway be kept intact.
1988–1991: Development and opening Western Development Corporation of Washington, D.C. first announced its plans to build a super-regional shopping center in Lake County, Illinois in 1988. The plan was to annex of unincorporated land near the intersection of the Tri-State Tollway and Grand Avenue, on which the mall would be built, into the village of Gurnee. Gurnee Mills would become the fourth mall in Western Development's Landmark Mills chain, after Potomac Mills, which opened in September 1985, and Franklin Mills and Sawgrass Mills, which were under construction at the time. Western Development later completed a corporate spin-off itself as Mills Corporation after its malls in April 1994, making Gurnee Mills the last Mills-branded mall developed under Western.Urban Land Institute. "The Mills", Shopping Centers and Other Retail Properties: Investment, Development, Financing, and Management, John Wiley & Sons, 1996. Local residents were concerned that the mall would steal customers from small local businesses and existing malls like Waukegan's nearby Lakehurst Mall and the Pleasant Prairie Premium Outlets,Vander Weele, Maribeth. "Mall plan attracts criticism", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, April 26, 1988. while Western Development was worried that Gurnee was too small to handle the construction project, despite the success of Six Flags Great America down the road.Sanchez Olson, Yadira. "1991 time capsule opened as Gurnee Mills marks 25th anniversary", Lake County News-Sun, August 8, 2016. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based CambridgeSeven was selected as the lead architect, while Rory McCarthy Design handled the interior.
Construction on the mall, which was projected to cost $160 million, began with a groundbreaking ceremony on July 19, 1989. By this time, plans had been expanded and the construction site consisted of of farm fields and wetlands.Vander Weele, Maribeth. "Construction starts today on giant Gurnee Mills mall", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, July 19, 1989. At the ceremony, four anchor retailers were announced: Sears Outlet, Reading China and Glass, Phar-Mor, and the Gurnee Mills Family Entertainment Center, a children's amusement area modeled after the 49th Street Galleria in Salt Lake City."Gurnee mall tagged as off-price dream", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, July 20, 1989.Kerch, Steve. "Shop And 'Bop' Set For Gurnee", Chicago Tribune, April 1, 1990. A total of 1.6million hours of work went into the construction process, which took 25 months.
The mall opened to the public at 8 a.m. EDT on August 8, 1991, allowing 70,000visitors to see the place before stores opened at 10 a.m.Gregory, Ted. "Mall mania in Lake County", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, August 9, 1991. The mall's architecture and design were themed after "the agrarian heartland", a look inspired by its rural setting and taking after a wide variety of sources, from the Googie-style diners of the 1950s to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School architecture. Unlike most malls of its size, the stores at Gurnee Mills are all on a single level, and oriented along a single Z-shaped corridor that runs for . 70% of the mall's retail spaces were leased at the time of the mall's opening, including seven of the ten anchors: Sears, Phar-Mor, Spiegel, Marshalls, Bed Bath & Beyond, Waccamaw Pottery, and the Family Entertainment Center. An eighth anchor, Filene's Basement, opened in October.
1991–2007: Early years With about 200retail spaces and two separate food courts: the Dine-O-Rama and the Lake County Fare, Gurnee Mills was intended from the beginning as a state-of-the-art mall, with high-tech features like a television studio where mall-specific commercials could be produced and shown on the mall's 55monitors, and its "video wall". The Family Entertainment Center featured a video arcade and other attractions for children. These features were intended to help turn the mall into a center for entertainment, not just for shopping, as the Mills Corporation felt entertainment was the future for shopping malls.Handley, John. "Always Getting The Goods: Template For Future Shopping Centers, Which Will Be Bigger And More Fun, Can Be Found In Retail History", Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1994. One marketing study found Gurnee Mills was so large that many shoppers preferred to drive to the other side of the parking lot rather than walk to the other end of the mall.Kiernan, Louise and Wilma Randle. "Big, Bigger And Then There's Woodfield Mall", Chicago Tribune, February 24, 1995.
Advertised as the "world's largest outlet mall", Gurnee Mills faced confusion from local consumers over the fact that it featured full-price stores as well as discount outlets, and the first six months of profits were lower than Western Development and the Gurnee tax base were hoping. Some retailers were satisfied with the mall's financial performance, while others were disappointed but optimistic.Phar-Mor, on the other hand, closed its store after one year of disappointing sales, becoming the first anchor to leave.Additions to the mall continued in 1993, with a new retail space constructed for Burlington Coat Factory, as well as Foot Locker, Syms, and The Clearinghouse by Saks Fifth Avenue opening that fall.Stott, Martha. "Gurnee snags Saks store", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, June 19, 1993. Circuit City opened in the area around the mall on November 24,Kane, James. "Circuit City floods market with nine more area stores", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, November 19, 1993. and a ten-screen movie theater, one of Marcus Theatres' first Illinois locations, opened at the mall on December 10. That year, Sears closed its chain of catalog outlet stores, leaving a space which was filled by a Macy's Close-Out store and later by JCPenney. The vacant space left by Phar-Mor was finally filled by Value City in 1995. Also in 1995, Sam's Club and Walmart, which later became Supercenter, opened across the street from the mall on the northwest corner of Hunt Club and Grand Ave.
By 1995, Gurnee Mills was the second-most popular tourist attraction in Illinois, behind the rival Woodfield Mall, drawing 14.4million visitors and 2,300tour buses in a year.Mays, Gary and Wilma Randle. "State's Top Tour-bus Draw? It's Gurnee Mills: Mall Bests Woodfield For No. 1 In Illinois", Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1996. Capitalizing on this growth and the idea of the mall as a regional entertainment destination,Ritzer, George. Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, 2nd edition, Pine Forge Press, 2005. major new developments began to be added to Gurnee Mills, beginning with the Rainforest Cafe in 1996.Mikus, Kim and Steve Warmbir. "It's going to be a jungle at new Gurnee Mills cafe", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, June 2, 1996. The Mills Corporation announced its plans to invest $50 million into expanding the mall in 1997,Silvestri, Scott. "Gurnee Mills targets $50 million for mall additions", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, May 16, 1997. beginning with the July opening of a Planet Hollywood restaurant, the second location in Illinois.Cole, Bill. "Gurnee Mills' new star", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, July 29, 1997. Another major addition was the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, second in a chain of heavily themed outdoor recreation destination superstores, in November 1997. The former location of Filene's Basement was combined with other spaces to create the new anchor store, the mall's largest retail space,Jacobs, Jodie. "Outdoors Indoors: Bass Pro Creates A Wilderness Adventure Amid A Concrete Sea At Gurnee Mills", Chicago Tribune, November 23, 1997. which previously was intended to hold an Incredible Universe store before plans fell through in 1996.Roeder, David. "Edgar takes bait, set to tout Gurnee store for outdoor devotees", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, July 10, 1996.
The focus on entertainment and experiences over shopping continued through the late 1990s, as the dot-com boom threatened to cut into the profits of traditional retailers.Susnjara, Bob. "Gurnee Mills: An experience, not an outlet", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, October 18, 1999. Serpent Safari, the first reptile zoo and store to be located in a shopping mall, opened next to the Rainforest Cafe in January 1999,Lehoczky, Etelka. "After You Shop, Just Slither On Over", Chicago Tribune, October 15, 1999. and in August Rink Side Sports, an entertainment center centered around an NHL-size ice rink, was added to the existing arcade and children's play area.Silvestri, Scott. "Gurnee ice arena can't keep a secret, opens doors before the grand opening", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, August 14, 1999. These efforts were heralded as a success: 21 million people visited the mall in 1998, representing a growth of 30% in the past three years.Mikus, Kim. "Gurnee Mills entertaining, as well", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, November 26, 1999.
True to concerns from local residents, Lakehurst Mall closed in 2001after the few remaining tenants pulled out Lakehurst was also suffering from the early 2000s recession, which affected Gurnee Mills as well: the mall lost two of its major anchors, with Syms leaving and Waccamaw furniture going out of business in 2001, and Spiegel closing its retail chain entirely in 2002. Two of these vacant spaces were filled fairly quickly, with Kohl's lined up to replace Spiegel before the latter even closed,Mikus, Kim. "Kohl's to replace Spiegel as Gurnee Mills continues transformation", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, June 19, 2002. and Circuit City, previously located in a separate building outside the mall, moving in to replace Syms."Gurnee's AMS like a trip to Disneyland", Daily Herald Suburban Chicago, November 11, 2001.