Lakehurst Mall

Lakehurst Mall was the first regional shopping complex in the northern Chicago suburb county of Lake County. The mall officially opened in 1971. It was built to service the growing town of Waukegan, the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and the northern suburban sprawl of Chicago. After several years of decline, Lakehurst closed in 2001, and was demolished in 2004.BeginningIn December 1968, 200acre of farmland close to the busy Tri-State Tollway was purchased from Thomas E. Wilson/Edellyn Farms for $2 million, and annexed into Waukegan, Illinois. Construction on the mall began about one year later, in September 1969. A five-year research project of Lake County had concluded that Lake County would be one of the fastest developing areas of the Midwest. The mixed-use (commercial/office/residential) development including Lakehurst Mall was built to service this new population.The mall was designed by Sidney H. Morris and Associates of Chicago and Gruen Associates of Los Angeles; Gruen was a well-known name in mall construction, dating from their pioneering 1956 design of Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota. Initially, Arthur Rubloff & Co. of Chicago was the management and leasing agent for Lakehurst.The new 1.1 million square feet (102,000 m²) mall was substantially larger than other malls in the area. There were three major department stores and about 100 smaller stores. A convenience center, which included the Chicago-native grocery store Jewel-Osco, was added to the original plan, as were over 6,000 parking spaces.