Bloomingdale takes over Stratford Square Mall to pave the way for ‘legacy development’

After steadily buying a collection of vacant department store buildings at Stratford Square, the village of Bloomingdale has taken over the core of the mall itself.

The village already owns the old Carson's, Burlington and Sears stores along with a strip of land along Springfield Drive. Bloomingdale leaders have now finalized an $8.75 million deal to purchase the remainder of the mall — a step toward re-imagining the sprawling site.

“The fact that we now have been able to assemble all that property, and we’ll provide the vision now, and the structure for the redevelopment of that property, it’s exciting,” Village President Franco Coladipietro said. “And it’s an opportunity to do a legacy development for Bloomingdale that will benefit the residents in years to come.”

Stratford Square opened for business in the mall-building craze of the 1980s. While other enclosed malls have sought to adapt, the once regional shopping hub has been limping along for years. In the hallways are morning mall walkers and dog walkers and very few shoppers. Music plays over the intercom and a message warning TikTokers and YouTubers not to film inside the mall.

“That property is such a significant asset in Bloomingdale,” Coladipietro said. “To see it in the condition that it was and ... to see that there’s no effort on the part of the ownership groups there really to redevelop the property, that broke my heart for our community.”

Multiple entities previously had control of mall real estate. Having the individual retail boxes and the main mall space under village ownership helps simplify redevelopment efforts, officials say.

Coladipietro envisions a mixed-use development with an “emphasis on entertainment experience” replacing the mall.

“Now you have a single vision relative to the property, which makes it more attractive for developers to come in and to evaluate different projects,” he said.

Meanwhile, the village has a management company taking care of the property because there still are some tenants in the mall, including an axe-throwing business and a wrestling training facility. Tenants have been given notices about the sale and will be vacating the mall.

It’s not viable for the village to keep the mall open while fleshing out redevelopment concepts, Coladipietro said.

“You have to have security in the mall, and then you have to maintain the mall,” he said. “The fixed costs of just maintaining and operating the mall is significant vis-à-vis the number of tenants you have in there.”

Village trustees recently approved a resolution to settle a lawsuit against Namdar Realty Group, the New York-based commercial real estate firm that owned the interior portion of the mall and the former JCPenney box. Officials called the lawsuit an “act of last resort.”

“The very first thing that I asked Namdar Group was, when they bought it, ‘What was your vision?’ And that's what they would never provide to us...what their plan was and what their vision was,” Coladipietro said.

On Wednesday, Namdar issued a joint statement with the village and Mason Asset Management.

“Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group officially closed on the sale of Stratford Square Mall to the Village of Bloomingdale last week,” the statement read. “The collective efforts behind this mutually negotiated transaction will help to enable the highest and best use for the property, and we welcomed the opportunity to work with the village on reaching this final decision.

“We had initially explored the potential of a joint venture with the Village on the redevelopment project, but as the plan took shape, the Village really sought more open green space for community gathering where much of the core mall currently stands,” the statement continued. “Ultimately, we agreed to sell the property to allow for its demolition and enable the Village to advance its vision for redevelopment.”

The village also has finalized an agreement in principle with Kohl’s to keep the store as part of any redevelopment. Kohl’s is the mall’s last anchor store.