The Brickyard, sometimes known as the Brickyard Mall, is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, U.S. Built in 1977 as an enclosed shopping mall featuring J. C. Penney,

Kmart Kmart ( ), formerly legally registered as Kmart Corporation, now operated by Transformco, is a department-store chain and online retailer in the United States and Territories of the United States, its territories. It operates four remaining Kma ...

, and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

, it was redeveloped in 2003 as a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center, strip plaza or simply plaza is a type of shopping mall, shopping center common in North America and Australia where the stores are arranged in a row, with a footpath in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a ...

. The center's

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...

s are Jewel,

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

, and

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. ( ) is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and i ...

. The Brickyard is owned and managed by

CBRE Group CBRE Group, Inc. (an initialism of Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis) is an American commercial real estate services and investment firm with corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas and global financial headquarters at Lever House in Midtown Manh ...

History

Maisel and Associates, a real estate company based out of

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Southfield borders Detroit to the north, roughly northwest of downtown Downtown Detroit, Detroit. As of the 2020 Uni ...

, worked with local developer Harry Chaddick to develop The Brickyard. Their research determined a need for a shopping mall on the northwestern side of

. The center was named The Brickyard because it was formerly on the site of a

brickyard A brickyard or brickfield is a place or Yard (land), yard where bricks are made, pottery firing, fired, and stored, or sometimes Commerce, sold or otherwise distributed from. Brick makers work in a brick yard. A brick yard may be constructed ...

for the Carey Brick Company. It was also the site of a former ski resort. Due to the elevation of the hill, the development of the mall is divided into sections. The first section of the mall to open was a "convenience center" featuring a Jewel supermarket and a

discount store on either side of a strip mall. This section of the mall opened in 1977 while the second phase, a 100-store enclosed mall with

and J. C. Penney, opened in 1979.

Carson Pirie Scott Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (also known as Carson's) is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. It was sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but sti ...

was also considered for a third anchor store to the mall, but Maisel was unable to secure a lease for the chain. As the shopping mall did not encompass the entirety of the former brickyard, portions of it remained vacant until 1983, when the city of Chicago acquired a $10,000,000 grant to demolish the remaining unused portions of the former brickyard and sell the lot to Maisel and Associates for future mall expansion.

MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the Holding company, holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, Annuity (US financial produ ...

bought the mall from Maisel and Associates in December 1986 for an undisclosed price. At the time, The Brickyard was 99 percent leased. As part of the acquisition, an adjacent strip mall called Bricktown Square also began immediately to the south; this center included

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...

Frank's Nursery & Crafts Frank's Nursery & Crafts was an American retailer devoted to the sale of lawn and garden products. It operated a chain of stores, with 170 outlets across 14 states. It specialized in products such as shrubs, trees, accent plants, flowers, and l ...

, Sport Mart sporting goods store, and a six-screen cinema owned by

Plitt Theatres Plitt Theatres was a major movie theater chain in the United States and went under a number of names, Publix Theaters Corporation, Paramount Publix Corporation, United Paramount Theatres, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres and ABC Theatres a ...

. In 1997, the Kmart at The Brickyard was the first in the Chicago area to be renovated into that chain's "Big Kmart" concept, which included a small grocery section. Despite this change, the mall saw a rapid decrease in tenancy at the end of the 20th century due to the bankruptcies of Kmart and Montgomery Ward, combined with the closure of J. C. Penney. By 2003, the mall was nearly 80 percent vacant, so the city council approved a $100,000,000 redevelopment plan to demolish the structure. Opening in its place would be a strip mall with

and

, along with a relocated Jewel supermarket. Whitehall Fund, which redeveloped the mall, sold it in 2004 to Inland Real Estate except for the Lowe's and Target stores, which were sold to those respective chains. The Brickyard is owned by

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brickyard 1977 establishments in Illinois Demolished shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls established in 1977 Shopping malls in Chicago