Bloomingdale to reveal vision for reviving Stratford Square Mall area

Editor’s note: The mall presentation has been moved to the Bloomingdale Golf Club due to forecasted rain Tuesday.

With the shuttered Stratford Square Mall about to meet the wrecking ball, Bloomingdale leaders on Tuesday will unveil a conceptual redevelopment plan for the property.

The village expects demolition of the cavernous mall — itself a six-month process — to begin in October. Officials want to prime the area for what the village hopes will become a mix of restaurants, entertainment venues, some retail, housing options and public open spaces.

“The goal is to make this a viable community experience asset again, as it was in the past,” Village President Franco Coladipietro said. “Stratford was a very important part of a lot of people’s lives.”

Stratford Square opened in the 1980s and served as an economic engine. At one time, the regional shopping center had a half dozen anchor stores, a movie theater and a carousel. But in recent years, the mall looked more like the set of a zombie film. YouTubers labeled Stratford Square a dead mall even before the doors closed permanently in April.

“This is an opportunity, really, for the village to bring life back into that area. Obviously, the mall had been in a decline, and it finally reached the point where change was needed,” Village Administrator Pietro Scalera said. “And our expectation is that with the mixed-use development that will come about, we will have new activity in our community. It’ll give us a sense of pride.”

Taking action

The village is working with Florida-based Gravity Architecture & Design on the vision for the Stratford Square area. Bloomingdale officials will give the public a look at preliminary design drawings during a presentation at the Bloomingdale Golf Club on Tuesday evening.

“We’ve been talking with potential developers for the last year to try to determine what’s viable … There’s obviously a desire on the part of people to have certain things there,” Coladipietro said, “but you have to create that intersection of what the market’s going to provide and what your wants are.”

Bloomingdale officials tried to partner on a joint venture with Namdar Realty Group, a New York-based real estate firm that acquired the interior portion of the mall in October 2019. But negotiations fell through.

After steadily buying vacant anchor stores, the village purchased the last piece — the core of the mall — earlier this year to spearhead redevelopment efforts.

“Our desire is not to be a long-term property owner. Our desire is to sell off these parcels to different developers. But to do it in a way that is in keeping with the vision that we have,” Coladipietro said, as opposed to turning over the entire property to one developer that would then have control over what happens there into the future.

If the village and the mayor “did not have the fortitude to take that step, we would still be dealing with a vacant mall that would only get worse as time continued on and become more of an eyesore to our community,” Scalera said.

Dismantling the mall

Once demolition begins, water cannons will spray the section of a building being removed to help keep dust on site, Scalera said.

The Kohl’s and Woodman’s grocery stores will remain open.

“We want to avoid any disruption to those two businesses during this work,” said Scalera, adding that it’s “important for us for them to continue to have an ability to have their patrons have access — direct access — to those businesses.”

The demolition contract is expected to cost $4.7 million. The village is using a line of credit, which is being paid for from a home-rule sales tax fund.

“We’re just very fortunate that the village is in a very strong financial position that is allowing us the opportunity to take the lead or the initiative on the redevelopment of the area,” Scalera said.

Coladipietro said a brass band, the Jimmy Farace Trio, will play before Tuesday’s presentation, and there will be an interactive display.

There’s a “tremendous amount of pride … in the fact that we’ve been able to do what we’ve been able to do in a short period of time,” he said, “to hopefully turn this property around and, again, make it a place where it becomes a resident experience for everyone, instead of what it is currently, which is a blight on our community.”