Kohan Eyes Mall Sale to West Dundee for Redevelopment

The village of West Dundee is poised to buy a majority of a nearly dead indoor mall in a bid to better control its redevelopment.

West Dundee is in talks to buy most of Spring Hill Mall at 1072 Spring Hill Ring Road, in the suburb northwest of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported. The would-be seller is Kohan Retail Investment Group, based in New York.

The potential terms for a portion of the 1.4 million-square-foot mall, of which 80 percent lies in West Dundee, were not disclosed. No timeline was set for reaching a deal.

Kohan Retail Investment bought the shopping mall in 2021 for $2.6 million.

“We began outreach earlier this year,” West Dundee Village President Chris Nelson told the Tribune. “Discussions have been intermittent. An offer sheet was tendered, and that offer sheet is the current basis for discussions. The most recent progression in talks is welcomed.

“If the offer is accepted, a period of due diligence would commence during which time-specific — or granular — terms would be hammered out,” he added.

This spring, the West Dundee Village Board agreed to purchase two of the mall’s four former anchor department stores: a vacant Macy’s department store for $1.25 million and an empty Sears store and 14 acres of land for $2 million.

Nelson said the village thinks retail stores in malls are outdated. By owning the nearly empty mall, he said West Dundee would be able to control how the site is redeveloped for new uses.

More than three quarters of the mall is in West Dundee, including a Cinemark movie theater. The rest is in Carpentersville, including a shuttered Carson’s anchor store and a Kohl’s anchor store, which remains open.

A Carpentersville village manager said it would be cooperative, but not engage in talks to buy distressed mall property.

The Spring Hill Mall, which opened in 1980, may go the way of indoor shopping malls across the nation, as retailers grapple with online shopping and other market trends. In the Chicago suburbs, developers are revamping the once iconic malls into mixed-use villages.

This month, New York-based Namdar Realty Group bought the troubled 1-million-square-foot Louis Joliet Mall in Chicago’s southwest suburbs for $31.4 million.

— Dana Bartholomew