Chicago Tribune: Skokie Plan Commission approves hundreds of new apartments at Old Orchard mall...

The Skokie Plan Commission approved the construction of hundreds of new apartments at the upscale shopping mall Westfield Old Orchard Thursday evening, the latest step in its transformation into a 24/7 mixed-use community.

By Brian J. Rogal 

The five- and seven-story residential buildings will replace an empty Bloomingdale’s on the mall’s north side and sit beside a new town square, roughly half an acre where residents, shoppers and Skokie neighbors can mingle while attending concerts, farmers markets, holiday celebrations and other events.

Owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield first unveiled its multiphase redevelopment plan for the historic mall in 2022. The company envisioned building Skokie a new downtown by ditching traditional big-box retailers in favor of new homes, smaller stores, restaurants, medical and wellness facilities, a hotel and the town square.

“We’ve been lining this up for some time,” Stephen Fluhr, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s senior vice president of development, told the Tribune. “The new multifamily development will bring residents to an amenity-rich environment that is also very pedestrian friendly.”

The plan still needs approval from the village of Skokie’s board of trustees, which could happen as early as September.

The rise of online commerce decimated many department stores, which either shut down or required less space, Fluhr said, so the 68-year-old property needed a change. Bloomingdale’s shuttered its three-story, 200,000-square-foot store in 2022 and moved into a new Old Orchard space one-fourth that size. Called Bloomie’s, it only sells the retailer’s top products. The owners also reconstructed the former Lord & Taylor store, creating spaces for artisanal furnishings brand Arhaus, Spain-based clothing store Zara and Puttshack, a high-tech mini golf outlet.

“Some brands fade over time and need to be replaced,” Fluhr said. “We’ve found that you can chop up these big boxes, find new users and at the same time, significantly increase the sales.”

URW plans to break ground, along with its partner, Chicago-based developer Focus, on up to 425 residences in 2025, completing construction by 2027, he added. A second phase of up to 250 units and a 200-room hotel will follow. The result will be a new Skokie neighborhood, one that provides retailers with a built-in customer base.

Read the full story from the Chicago Tribune.