RIVER OAKS CENTER
Torrence Avenue / US 6 and River Oaks Drive
City of Calumet City, Illinois
The fifteenth major shopping complex in Chicagoland was developed by a joint venture of the Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Life Insurance Company and Chicago's Phillip Klutznick, under the auspices of KLC Venture, Limited. Mr. Klutznick had been instrumental in the creation of the PARK FOREST PLAZA (1949), OLD ORCHARD CENTER (1956) and OAKBROOK CENTER (1962) retail hubs.
RIVER OAKS CENTER sat on 100 acres, situated 18 miles southeast of The Loop, in suburban Calumet City. The open-air shopping center, designed by Richard Marsh Bennett of Loebl, Schlossman, Bennett & Dart, consisted of a main retail level and basement. The 35 million dollar complex encompassed approximately 921,000 leasable square feet.
Sears, the first operational store, opened for business September 14, 1966. The mall was formally dedicated on October 3, 1966. Joseph Nowak, mayor of Calumet City, buried a time capsule in the mall's Center Court. Entertainment was provided by a color guard and 100-piece band. By November 3 of the same year, most of the mall's sixty stores and services were up and running.
The original RIVER OAKS anchors were a 3-level (260,000 square foot) Marshall Field & Company, 2-level (56,000 square foot), Hammond, Indiana-based Edward C. Minas Company and 2-level (338,000 square foot) Sears.
The larger inline stores at RIVER OAKS were an (18,300 square foot) Jewel-Osco Food & Drug, (20,000 square foot) Evans Fashion Center, (31,500 square foot) Lytton's and (34,000 square foot) S.S. Kresge 5 & 10. Other charter tenants included Fabric Mart Draperies, Baskin's men's & ladies' wear, Florsheim Shoes, Kroch's & Brentano's Books, C.D. Peacock Jewelers, Chandler's Shoes, Fannie May Candies and John M. Smyth Company furniture.
Major shopping centers in the vicinity included EVERGREEN PLAZA (1952) {10.4 miles northwest, in Evergreen Park}, DIXIE SQUARE MALL (1966-1979) {5.7 miles northwest, in Harvey} and LINCOLN MALL (1973) {10.7 miles southwest, in Matteson}.
The first cinematic venue at RIVER OAKS CENTER, the ABC Great States River Oaks Dimension-150 Theatre, opened May 30, 1969. The River Oaks 2 Theatre, across Torrence Avenue, opened in 1972 and was expanded into a 3-plex in 1975. In 1980, screens 5 & 6 opened in a building adjacent to the River Oaks Theatre 2 & 3.
The original -circa-1969- house had been expanded with a second auditorium in 1978. The venue became known as the River Oaks Theatres 1 & 4. Inside the mall, the River Oaks Theatres 7 & 8 was installed in space previously occupied by a Jewel Food-Osco Drug. This venue showed its first features on October 21, 1983.
On December 16, 1988, the Cineplex Odeon River Oaks Cinemas 1-6 opened in a vacant S.S. Kresge space. The multiplexes across Torrence Avenue were shuttered. Theatres 7-8 remained as is. The twin-screen venue in the original (circa-1969) theater became the River Oaks Theatres 9 & 10.
Meanwhile, the mall's first anchor nameplate change had taken place on October 6, 1982, when the Edward C. Minas store became the twenty-fifth Carson Pirie Scott location. By this time, the entity that had built the mall was known as the Urban Investment & Development Company. They performed A 15 million dollar mall expansion between April and November of 1985.
A 2-level (139,000 square foot) J.C. Penney was dedicated October 2nd. The store was part of a new Northwest Wing. A 3 million dollar food court, known as the Tower Cafe, was also installed in fully-enclosed space on the mall's lower level (previously utilized as the John M. Smyth furniture store). The Tower Cafe encompassed eleven fast food vendors, a sit-down restaurant and nine food-related shops.
Stores brought into the mall as part of the renovation included Armstrong Jewelers, Claire's Boutique, Gingiss Formalwear, Regis Hairstylists, The Gap, The Grate Home & Fireplace Shop, Mothercare Maternity, Lechter's Housewares and World Bazaar.
At the dawn of the 1990s, RIVER OAKS CENTER was still open-air. A 50 million dollar refurbishment was announced in February 1993. Construction got underway in March. The design of the mall enclosure was handled by Jim Ryan & Associates of Southfield, Michigan.
All courts and concourses were roofed, with 80,000 square feet of fill-in retail space created. The Carson's store was expanded to 62,000 square feet. Twenty-five new stores opened in March 1994, with an additional twenty-eight beginning business in May. An 8-bay Food Court, on the Main Level of the complex, commenced operation in August.
The newly-refurbished complex was re-dedicated in September 1994. Its gross leasable area had been increased to 1,229,000 square feet. There was now a total of 146 stores and services. New tenants included The Disney Store, The Bombay Company, Victoria's Secret, Mrs. Field's Cookies and The Body Shop.
Oakbrook, Illinois-based JMB Properties and the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group established a joint venture ownership deal involving four Chicagoland malls; RIVER OAKS CENTER, HAWTHORN CENTER {in Vernon Hills}, FOX VALLEY CENTER {in Aurora} and ORLAND SQUARE MALL {in Orland Park}.
In November 1997, this arrangement was restructured, with Simon assuming 100 percent ownership of the RIVER OAKS and ORLAND SQUARE properties. JMB became the sole proprietor of FOX VALLEY CENTER and HAWTHORN CENTER.
The new century brought more changes to RIVER OAKS CENTER. Steve & Barry's University Sportswear came and went and Marshall Field's was "Macy-ated" on September 9, 2006. The mall's cinema complexes were shuttered between 2005 and 2008.
The original (circa-1969) venue was bulldozed in 2011. Cinemas 1-6 (in the old S.S. Kresge) was torn down in October 2012, followed by the razing of Theatres 7-8 (in the Jewel-Osco space) in November. The Carson's store shut down in January 2012, with Sears throwing in the towel in June 2013. The River Oaks Professional Building was demolished in early 2014.
Meanwhile, the Simon Property Group had created a spin-off Real Estate Investment Trust. Known as the Washington Prime Group., it assumed ownership of RIVER OAKS CENTER. WPG merged with the Glimcher Realty Trust in early 2015. In March 2017, the mall was sold to a joint venture of Great Neck, New York's Masson Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group.
Sources:
http://www.simon.com (Simon Property Group)
http://triptothemall.blogspot.com
https:www.cinematreasures.org
http:movie-theatre.org/usa/il/chicago/suburban
http://www.nwitimes.com
https://namdarrealtygroup.com
"River Oaks Center" article on Wikipedia
