Ferak: How Does Louis Joliet Mall Still Stay Open?

JOLIET, IL — You can't deny the fact that a lot of development is taking place around Joliet these days. In November, Costco opened its new store at The Boulevards at Interstate 55 and Route 30. And finally, Russ Construction is moving dirt for the long awaited Rock Run Crossings along I-55 and the frontage road.

After five years of talk and no action, construction for the new four-lane Houbolt Road truck bridge got underway in April near Route 6 between Joliet and Channahon.

Along Plainfield Road, they almost need to assign a full-time traffic officer to navigate vehicles entering and exiting the new Joliet Chick-fil-A. The place has been so busy since opening in January.

Sometime this year, the old Diamand's Family Restaurant will be torn down because Raising Cane's plans to build a drive-thru restaurant here. Raising Cane's seems to follow Chick-fil-A's every move, having just opened a new restaurant not far from the Oswego Chick-fil-A.

With so many new retail and infrastructure improvements underway this spring, it's easy for Joliet to pat itself on the back for a job well done. But at the same time, all is not well. Have you been by the Louis Joliet Mall lately? The Sears parking lot remains barren.

At least with the empty Carson's, there is a sign on the front entrance letting the two or three people who drive-by here every day know that the property is available.

On Friday, for the first time in over a year, I parked at the Louis Joliet Mall and stepped inside. In 1991 and 1992, during my freshman year of college, I sold sporting goods and gym shoes at the now-defunct Herman's Sporting Goods store in the Louis Joliet Mall.

My purpose for visiting Friday was to assess the current state of the mall.

When I parked on the backside of Sears, I encountered about 100 brand new shiny cars. But these cars don't belong to any of the mall shoppers. They belong to the Honda Superstore of Joliet dealership on the opposite side of the Louis Joliet Mall near I-55. Honda is now using the Louis Joliet Mall's massive parking lot to keep its surplus of cars, which makes perfect sense, since nobody else is using the Sears parking lot these days.

When I walked the mall Friday afternoon, I was surprised at how well the Louis Joliet Mall staff have done to conceal several of the empty storefronts, particularly for the Sears and Carson Pirie Scott. Inside the mall, there are walls and murals erected in front of what used to be the entrances for the department stores. In other words, if you did not know any better, you would not even know these anchor stores existed.

To my surprise, there were way more retail stores open than closed. I counted around 10 empty storefronts throughout the entire mall. One of the places that went out of business since my last visit was the Furry Babies store, so its demise is an addition by subtraction.

To be fair, I must point out, when I worked in the Louis Joliet Mall 30 years ago, the mall always had a handful of store vacancies, even in its heyday.

But having stores open and nobody inside to shop is not a recipe for success.

At times, the area between the former Sears and the food court was empty. I noticed one mall security guard kept walking the mall, and every few minutes, a shopper or two would emerge, but that was about it.

When I reached the food court area, I did notice signs of life. There were several human beings, perhaps as many as 50, eating food from the Burger King, Osaka Japan, Panda Express, Great Steak and Sbarro at the tables spread out in the food court.

I had to laugh when I saw Sbarro. That place was here when I worked at Herman's Sporting Goods three decades ago. I never considered Sbarro one of the great places to order a slice of pizza, but I have to give them credit, they have managed to stay in business.

Over near the food court, I noticed a Game Stop, so maybe that's keeping the mall in business. There were also people congregating near the Cinemark where the new Mortal Kombat movie was playing. In 2019, Cinemark added Luxury Lounger reclining seats to all its auditoriums.

During my stroll around the mall, I walked toward the Crab Boil & Bar and peeked through the restaurant window. By no means was the place overwhelmed with customers. I saw about a dozen people gathered at the tables and booths, more than I thought for a late Friday afternoon.

But inside many stores, including the athletics apparel and shoe stores, many of the employees looked anxious, like they were waiting for their first customer of the day. The same could be said for the 5,000 kiosks set up in the middle of the Louis Joliet Mall. That's an exaggeration. There are only 4,999 kiosks, and every time you make eye contact with one of these kiosk workers, you should be prepared for a hard sales pitch from someone trying to get you to change your wireless phone carrier to someone trying to sell you a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.

So what were my impressions of the Louis Joliet Mall from April 23?

There was not much foot traffic inside the mall, at least not enough to call this a thriving mall. But there were more stores open than I envisioned. I am shaking my head on that one. How are all these places able to afford their lease, pay their employees and make a profit?

Now that the city of Joliet — to its credit — filed a lawsuit that prompted the owners of the Senor Tequila property on Jefferson Street to tear down that eyesore, I think the city needs to become more proactive in redeveloping the Louis Joliet Mall property.

I want to see the Louis Joliet Mall torn down and the property repurposed for something else.

Perhaps a convention center could go here. Perhaps an outdoor music venue would work because of its proximity to Interstate 55 and Chicago. Perhaps the Honda Superstore of Joliet would want to buy it, move its dealership here and call it the Honda Super-duper Superstore of Joliet.

Then again, maybe the mall should be redeveloped for a combination of single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses. I could envision more residential thriving here with its proximity to the new Costco. There is also an Aldi, Target, Home Depot, Binny's Beverage Depot and Texas Roadhouse restaurant nearby. What more could you ask for?

The more I think about it, housing is the logical and most practical re-use of the Louis Joliet Mall property. This could be real estate developer Ed Mattox's next major apartment complex development for Joliet.

These are just a few of my ideas. You may have better ones. But as more retail and restaurants flock to The Boulevards and to the Rock Run Crossings over the next few years, and I am confident that will occur, I would expect the Louis Joliet Mall's occupancy rate will slowly start to drop.

Do you know what's the best thing going for the Louis Joliet Mall right now?

It's the fact that JCPenney and Macy's have not gone out of business yet, unlike hundreds of their stores elsewhere.

Suggesting the Louis Joliet Mall isn't in as bad of shape as many other indoor malls across the country is turning a blind eye to the obvious problem: the mall's best days are a thing of the past.

The Louis Joliet Mall may have a future, but it does not have a bright future. The Louis Joliet Mall isn't a great place to open your new business or to expand your existing retail business. Only a fool or a dreamer would believe that it is.

Mark my word, the Louis Joliet Mall will be closed in the next two to three years.

And when that happens, you will see your city of Joliet officials start to talk about ways to redevelop the large retail property. But if members of the Joliet City Council were smart, they would be having those conversations now, rather than waiting for the inevitable to occur around 2023 or 2024.