ORIGINAL OUTLET MALL: KENOSHA, WI
Judy Elgin's Commentary
Posted April 29, 2006 (user submitted)
One of the earliest enclosed factory outlet malls kept its date with the
wrecking ball last year. The Original Outlet Mall located just off Interstate
94 at Highway 50 in Kenosha, Wisconsin is no more.
The mall opened in 1982 and housed outlets for Eddie Bauer, Corning, Hanes,
Jockey, Pfalzgraff, Fuller Brush, Sony, Van Heusen, Samsonite, The Company
Store, and another 40 or 50 more retailers at the height of its popularity. The
mall was a regular stop for our family on our way to vacations in Elkhart Lake
or Door County and was also a popular destination for busloads of bargain
shoppers from the Chicago area.
The decor was basic, a long string of stores
joined by industrial gray corridors, and several small food kiosks to serve the
shoppers. But the bargains were plentiful, the mall and shops were neat and
clean, and there were enough decent restaurants in the area so that the lack of
a "real" food court wasn't a problem. Parking was plentiful and close to the
mall's entrances, and there were dozens of benches to sit and rest for a few
minutes, or for patient husbands to relax on while their wives handled the
Power Shopping duties.
It died slowly through the 90's, knocked off many shoppers' maps by the new
open-air Lakeside Mall (now Prime Outlets At Pleasant Prairie) with its more
upscale shops just a stone's throw south of it, and by the giganormous Gurnee
Mills Mall a few miles south across the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Many of the
stronger tenants relocated to one of the competing malls and each time we would
shop there, parking spots close to the entrances were easier to find. Even a
general "paint-up, spruce-up" a few years ago couldn't stop the inevitable.
The mall was sold several times since 2001, and it was finally decided by the
current owners to convert it to a "community shopping center". Demolition began
in late 2005.
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Mickey Stevens’s Commentary:
User submitted Sep 2006I went to the Original Outlet Mall during the 90s and 00s. I don't ever remember it being a very busy mall like Gurnee Mills or some of the malls up in Milwaukee, but there was definitely a downturn over the years. Many of the outlets opened second stores at Prime Outlets in Pleasant Prairie or Gurnee Mills in Gurnee, IL. As a result, many of them closed their stores at the Original Outlet Mall. Interestingly, the exit (Hwy 50) where the mall was located has been growing steadily in home development and retail development; in the last few years, a major grocer & furniture store have gone in as well as several smaller stores on the east side of the freeway. Those are mostly intended for the local community though, not people coming from Chicago & Milwaukee to shop like the Outlet Mall hoped to attract. I suppose that there were just too many outlets for the size of the region.
There was a small food court at one end of the mall during the 1990s. There was a pizzeria, an Arbys, a Chinese restaurant, and two or three other restaurants. The space was walled off after the restaurants closed, with a generic sign proclaiming new stores would be coming soon. One time I went through a corridor in the interior of the mall that went to the restroom and discovered the door to the old food court. I took a quick look inside and saw that nothing had really happened. It was still the old food court; there hadn't been any construction or conversion from what I could tell. Later they got a Rocky Rococo Pizza and Rose Subs in the center of the mall that were open for a couple years until the end (Rose Subs closed soon, but Rocky's was open for a while).
The last time I visited the mall, it was not busy at all and only a few stores were still open; I remember Eddie Bauer still being there and saying they were hiring! I could see the end was near. Shortly after, Tucker Development announced the mall would be "repositioned" as a big box retail center. The mall stayed standing for a while afterwards. Last time I went by, the two northern sections had been demolished, and the two southern ones were still standing.
At the same time that the Original Outlet Mall was in its final days, Prime Outlets in Pleasant Prairie remodeled its aging exterior. Just this summer the mall added a third wing on the northeast corner of the property, and a food court is supposed to open this fall. Eddie Bauer, who were at the Original Outlet Mall, are in the new section at Prime Outlets.
Link to Tucker Development site about future of mall:
Mickey Stevens
Bayside, Wisconsin [please withhold location]