A massive, long-struggling shopping mall near Chicago’s Midway International Airport faces the wrecking ball after a local industrial developer struck a deal to buy and demolish the property to make way for four new warehouses.
Bridge Industrial has a contract to buy Ford City Mall on the city’s Southwest Side, with plans to knock down the center and replace it with four warehouses totaling about 913,000 square feet, according to people familiar with the situation and an email sent by 18th Ward Alderman Derrick Curtis to constituents.
Pending zoning approval, the project would cost more than $150 million, starting in fall 2026 and concluding in fall 2028.
Once owned by billionaire Sam Zell, the mall at 7601 S. Cicero Ave. has been a neighborhood fixture since it opened in the 1960s.
Yet today more than half the space is vacant, according to the alderman’s message. Three of the anchor tenants, Montgomery Ward, Sears and Carson’s, have closed in recent years, leaving massive holes that have never been filled.
Trend toward industrial
If the deal is completed, it would continue a national trend of industrial developers snapping up obsolete office campuses, shopping malls and other large pieces of land where they can build modern warehouses.
Bridge’s project also would return the Ford City site to its industrial roots.
Chicago-based Bridge Industrial is one firm actively seeking out such properties, including a recent deal for an outdated office building in Downers Grove, Illinois, that it plans to demolish and replace with an approximately 240,000-square-foot industrial building.
But there have been examples throughout the country of opposition from nearby residents worried about truck traffic, air quality and other issues.
Bridge in 2023 proposed buying a sprawling Baxter International office campus in Deerfield, Illinois, to make way for a multibuilding industrial development, but the project was killed by vocal opposition from residents of Deerfield and neighboring suburbs. Deerfield officials then moved to create an outright ban on distribution centers.
Ford City Mall is owned by Great Neck, New York-based firms Namdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management, which often partner to buy distressed retail properties throughout the country.
Bridge plans to seek zoning approval from the City Council to allow for industrial uses on the Ford City site. It’s not known how much Bridge has offered to pay for the site pending a zoning change.
Bridge, Namdar and the alderman did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.
Some retail to remain
The Namdar venture plans to maintain some retail space along Cicero Avenue and the AMC Ford City 14 movie theater at Kostner Avenue and 77th Street, according to Crain’s Chicago Business, which earlier reported Bridge’s planned acquisition and redevelopment.
Bridge plans to plant more than 750 trees in a buffer area between the planned warehouses and nearby residential areas, while truck access would be prohibited on Cicero Avenue and 76th Street, according to the alderman’s update to ward residents.
The mall site previously was used as an airplane manufacturing campus for B-29 bombers during World War II. Ford Motor Co. later manufactured airplane engines from the facility, leading to the mall’s name after it replaced the industrial complex.
The Namdar venture bought Ford City Mall for just over $16.6 million in 2019. The seller was iStar, the lender that seized the mall from Zell several years earlier.
Although they are best known for investing in distressed retail, Namdar and Mason have branched out lately to scoop up discounted deals in other sectors. In Chicago, that includes buying the 57-story office tower at 70 W. Madison St. and a high street retail property on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.