CHICAGO PLACE: CHICAGO, IL
Jeremy Nelson's Commentary
User submitted December 16, 2009
700 North Michigan Avenue.
Chicago, Illinois
Opening in 1990, Chicago Place was built in the style of other downtown shopping centers. Like 900 North Michigan (opened in 1989), and Water Tower Place (opened in 1974), the mall was built vertically. Because of space constraints, these malls have many floors and a smaller area per floor, rather than just two or three levels of spread out floors.
Since Chicago Place's opening, its main anchor has been Saks Fifth Avenue. With the exception of two small stores on the eighth floor, as well as the food court, Saks is the only store left in the mall. It seems they have abandoned Chicago Place as well; the mall entry is blocked off, and a sign has been posted telling shoppers to enter the store through the street entrance.
The mall's escalators have been shut off. Only one elevator is in commission, and its sole purpose is to transport customers to the food court on the eighth level.
The food court is the only part of the mall where there are any signs of life, and even those signs all point towards life support. There looks to have been a small river flowing through the center of the eating area that led to a fountain at the head of the food court, but it has been drained. The food court boasts many of the mainstays of other mall food courts, like a Great Steak & Potato, a Subway, and a Taco Bell. Although closing time wasn't for another 45 minutes, many of the eateries were already closed for the night. Some employees had curled up in front of their respective cash registers with newspapers and cell phones, waiting for closing time to arrive.
�It's so dead here.� replied one food court employee. �Sometimes, we'll get an influx of people who come here on lunch break, but that doesn't happen everyday. We probably could get more people from Saks, but all of their mall entries are closed..�
The mall's glass elevator showed me everything I needed to see- as I traveled back down to the ground floor, Some storefronts were completely closed down, not even leaving a clue behind as to who the last tenant was. Some stores were still fully lit, and I could even see random items that were left behind. Mannequins, desks, and even barber chairs were some of the "throwaways" I saw on my way down.
There are a lot of different aspects that could be attributed to the mall's decline. The Water Tower Place was an already established mall, and 900 North Michigan had already opened a year before. A third mall, less than five blocks south, may have just been one too many. However, in 2000, The Shops At North Bridge, a Nordstrom-anchored mall, opened just three blocks south of Chicago Place, and continues to thrive.
Even though each downtown mall has one of the major anchors (Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and Saks), another cause could be the buildup of Michigan Avenue. Stores that would usually be found in a mall, such as Gap, Victoria's Secret, and The Disney Store, have their own storefronts on Michigan Avenue.
Location, overexposure to malls, and a lack of well known stores all played a part in the demise of Chicago Place. Plans are underway to convert part of the building into office spaces, so it may end up being a smaller version of the Thompson Center, a mini mall/office complex located elsewhere in Chicago. Regardless of that possibility, it still doesn't change the fact that dead malls can show up anywhere- even in the most high traffic areas.
Have information on 
Check out Deadmalls.com's Dead Malls Media archive!
Amorette Dye’s Commentary:
User submitted Jan 2013Hi,
I have several pictures taken at Chicago Place in the early 2000s (2002 or 2003, I think). I have the food court and the big bank of escalators, just needed to know where I could send them and what size you need them to be.
Jeremy Nelson’s Commentary:
User submitted Oct 2012Opening in 1990, Chicago Place was built in the style of downtown shopping centers that came before it. Like 900 North Michigan (opened in 1989), and Water Tower Place (opened in 1974), the mall was built vertically due to space constraints; they have many floors with a smaller area rather than two or three floors with a much larger area.
Since Chicago Place's opening, its main anchor was Saks Fifth Avenue. With the exception of two small stores and the food court on the eighth floor, Saks was the only store left in the mall at the time of the mall's closing; by that time, they had long abandoned Chicago Place as well. The mall entry was blocked off, and a sign was posted telling shoppers to enter the store through the street entrance. Other major retailers such as Talbot's and Ann Taylor had long since vacated the building.
I visited the mall back in 2009, when its fate was all but sealed. The mall's escalators had been shut off. Only one elevator was in commission, and its sole purpose was to transport customers to the food court on the eighth level. The food court was the only part of the mall where there were any signs of life, and even those signs all pointed towards life support. There was a small river flowing through the center of the eating area that led to a fountain at the head of the food court, but it had been drained. Despite the mall's abandonment, it still boasted many of the mainstays of other mall food courts, like a Great Steak & Potato, a Subway, and a Taco Bell. Although closing time wasn't for another 45 minutes, many of the eateries were already closed for the night. Some employees had curled up in front of their respective cash registers with newspapers and cell phones, waiting for closing time to arrive.“It's so dead here.” replied one food court empl
oyee. “Sometimes, we'll get an influx of people who come here on lunch break, but that doesn't happen everyday. We probably could get more people from Saks, but all of their mall entries are closed..”
As I traveled back down to the ground floor, some storefronts were completely closed down, not even leaving a clue behind as to who the last tenant was. Some stores were still fully lit, and I could even see random items that were left behind. Mannequins, desks, and even barber chairs were some of the "throwaways" I saw on my way down the glass elevator.
There are various aspects that could be attributed to the mall's quick decline. The Water Tower Place was an established mall, and 900 North Michigan had just opened a year earlier. Chicago Place was less than five blocks from the other two, and siphoning business away from them would have been hard enough. However, in 2000, The Shops At North Bridge, a Nordstrom-anchored mall, opened just three blocks south of Chicago Place and continues to thrive, leaving Chicago Place in a distant 4th place.
Although each mall has one of the major anchors in either Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, or Saks, another cause could be the buildup of Michigan Avenue. Gap, The Disney Store, Banana Republic, Express, H&M, and Victoria's Secret- stores that would normally be found in any mall, have flagship storefronts on Michigan Avenue, amongst others. With four malls already fighting for tenants, not being able to resort to conventional mall stores to increase occupancy made an already tough task even tougher. Where Chicago Place could have survived was in offering space to stores who could no longer afford to have their own storefront or couldn't afford rent in the other three malls- however, that's just a big "what if" for a mall that's now gone.
Today, the first two floors of the space are occupied by Zara and AllSaints, two overseas clothing retailers. Upper floors were supposed to be converted into office space, but there's no confirmation if that ever came to be.
The only remnants of Chicago Place are a marquee at the back of the mall's loading dock and its front marquee on Google Street View. Chicago Place never really found its footing- most of its stores were either little known retailers or gift shops. I'm not even sure if the mall ever reached full occupancy. It just goes to prove that dead malls can show up anywhere- even in the most high traffic areas.
Erica Crawford’s Commentary:
User submitted Jan 2009http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1358106,CST-NWS-mall01.article
Dark days for Michigan Avenue mall
CHICAGO PLACE | Loss of big-name retailers leaves void owners are struggling to fill
Recommend (8)
Comments
January 1, 2009
Chicago Place Mall, the dark, vertical and long-struggling shopping center at 700 N. Michigan Ave., is nearly barren as its owners reportedly prepare to open offices or living units to replace retailers on the upper floors.
The main floor is unheated, the escalator is shut down and Saks Fifth Avenue is the only ground-floor retailer accessible from the entryway. A single elevator takes shoppers to Saks' upper floors, a food court and five retail shops on floors three and eight.
» Click to enlarge image
Saks Fifth Avenue is the only ground-floor retailer accessible from the entryway of Chicago Place.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
Allen Joffe, principal at Baum Realty in Chicago, said the mall's owners are marketing about 6,000 empty square feet on the ground floor for retail. The owners, a group of New York investors, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"The mall lost a lot of its luster when Room & Board left," Joffe said. The furniture retailer moved five years ago to the site of the former DisneyQuest at the southwest corner of Rush and Ohio.
Chicago Place has since lost big-name retailers such as Ann Taylor and Williams-Sonoma, and sources said the mall owners have let store leases expire to make way for the renovation.
John Maxson, president of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, said Best Buy had approached the association about opening a store at Chicago Place, but ultimately chose the former Paul Stuart menswear location at the Hancock Center. Paul Stuart moved to 107 E. Oak St., and Best Buy expects to open its store in the Hancock in mid-May.
A big-box tenant such as Target would require massive changes in Chicago Place's layout, Maxson said.
"Best Buy was talking about decking over the atrium and doing things fundamental to [changing] the structure of the mall," he said.
The Talbots store, which takes up the first and second floors just south of the mall's main entrance, is expected to be replaced by Zara, a Spanish men's, women's and children's clothing retailer known for fast fashion changes in its stores. Mall owners have filed a lawsuit seeking to terminate Talbots' lease so it can replace it with Zara and "de-mall" Chicago Place.