Dixie Square Mall: Harvey, Illinois on DeadMalls.com

DIXIE SQUARE MALL: HARVEY, IL

David Wojcik 's Commentary:

Posted November 20, 2006 (user submitted October 7, 2006)

Demolition on Dixie Mall has halted.

The developer is not to be found and has not paid contractors. Developer moved out of offices subleased from Demolition Contractor United Demolition on Kostner Ave. Illegal removal of asbestos has Atty General looking into developer. Il. Dept of Public Health and Il. EPA have issues with work completed by developer.

Stephen Rybak's Commentary:

Posted January 8, 2005 (user submitted)

The demolition and redevelopment of the Dixie Square Mall property in Harvey has begun...I did a final inspection of the mall and work has started and the old Montgomery Wards has started to be demolished, so a dead mall is soon to be gone for good.

This mall was prominently featured in the 1980 feature film "The Blues Brothers". The mall was already closed for a year when producers rented it out, renovated the interior display, and drove cop cars through it.

Travis Bell from www.BluesBrothersCentral.com recently took his 1974 Dodge Monaco (the same make and model used in the film) on a re-enactment of Jake & Elwood's ride through Dixie Mall. The video is available on the site. Excellent editing by Travis inter-cuts his footage with scenes from the actual movie that provide for an entertaining short to watch.

Click link below and then click link that says "Big Mall Video" to watch.
Return to Dixie

Links:

www.DixieSquare.com - link to Paul McVay's site, a comprehensive and likely spectacular documentary on the history of Dixie Square. Tons of pictures and information on this site!

Ross Schendel's Commentary:

Posted August 14, 2001 (user submitted)

Living just north of the Chicagoland metro area, I had no idea Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, IL existed until Pete tipped me off. I even have friends in Chicagoland and they had no idea it existed. The reason is thus: The 800,000 square-foot mall was shuttered in September, 1979. It has been left standing since. Abandoned.

With this new knowledge, I set out to find the mall. Because of circumstances beyond my control, my first visit was fruitless. It was already dusk when I arrived at the mall, and almost immediately after entering the parking lot two squads boxed me in and interrogated me as to my actions. I calmly and politely told them I was working on a website devoted to the decline of retail ventures in suburbia, et al., and they bought it without a hitch but told me to leave immediately. Upon further investigation I noticed that the main Harvey Police Precinct, a newish looking building with approximately a dozen squads parked out front, was ON the outlot to the mall. In fact, the Police Precinct uses part of the mall parking lot for their helipad.

Less than a week later I had time to go back; this time, during the middle of the afternoon. I parked my car in a nearby lot with cars in it, grabbed my camera and walked toward the mall and started taking pictures. I came to an anchor's loading dock area. Parts of the loading dock garages were still there, parts were completely smashed out. What could have caused such damage to those?

I walked around the corner, looking for an entrance, and find one. It is not boarded up. In fact, someone had bashed in the board-up across the doors and the board up, as well as the remnants of the doors (with lots of glass), were strewn all over. I cautiously walked inside the gaping hole where the doors once were, and to my amazement there were still labels and decor on the walls from the anchor (presumably Sears) when it was open in the 1970s. This was like a living time capsule. "Curtains" and a brand name was written on one wall, and above all exits was printed "Thank you...Please come again..." I was ecstatic to have made such a find; I did not expect this much to be visible after so many years. I would have gone in further, as the actual mall part was accessible through here (and as I later found out, many other areas); however, the mold was obnoxious. The mold smell was so strong it made me dizzy and gave me a strong headache, so I went out.

I started walking down the outside of the anchor to find more entrances like this to take more pictures, and I saw them. Dogs. There were two Dobermans about 100 feet ahead of me in the way that I was walking. They were walking, also, and had not noticed me. Immediately I turned around and made a break for my car, which was 50 feet or so away. The dogs had noticed me running and came quickly, but I was way too far ahead of them and in my car by the time they were even halfway so they turned around and went inside the mall. This disappointed me, because at this point I was not afraid of any people I would encounter. However, dogs are a different story. They are completely unpredictable and unreasonable.

After this I took my car around the mall and got out only to take pictures and go right back in, for fear the dogs may be nearby. At some points they were, but mostly they did their own thing. Also, I found out that the gaping holes at that anchor that was presumably Sears were to be found ALL over the mall. The entire mall was open. Mall entrances, anchor doors, even service entrances and the boiler area were all completely open. I walked in some doorways but only to take pictures and leave. I would have gone i n further to explore, but it just didn't seem safe.

After another turn I found a mall entrance with an anchor on one side. This anchor had winged pillars/decor and a brown facade, and was probably Montgomery Ward. At another turn the third anchor to the mall I am almost 100% positive to be JCPenney. It is typical of some current still-standing Penney's designs. This is the anchor with the copious graffiti on the front of the board-up. I'm surprised this board-up is still there. This was actually and surprisingly the only area of the mall to have lots of graffitti. Perhaps the proximity of the Police Precinct keeps the miscreants away.

Also interesting to me was the metallic hooped device seemingly at center court. It looks like a giant basketball hoop chain sticking up in the air. It's not easily discernable in the pics. This was also near the only labelscars on the outside of the mall, which read City Life. I'm completely unsure what City Life was. It sounds like a dance club, maybe a disco of some sort. But I am completely at a loss. Maybe someone reading this can clue me in, or maybe tell me more about the specifics of this mall when it was open. It was closed almost 2 years before my birth.

Another point of intrigue to this mall was the amount of plant overgrowth. The parking lot is full of weeds that have evolved into shrubbery and some of them even into full-fledged trees. One such pine tree was at least 30 feet tall, maybe more. Parts of the parking lot are so overgrown it is almost impossible driving. Yet, surprisingly, other parts of the parking lot have original yellow pavement markings and the like. Parking spaces can be made out quite clearly. Also, the mall would have been more easily to photograph from the outside were it not summer. The overgrowth completely covers the outside of the mall in some areas.

To end this I want to also mention the area this mall is in. This area is in DIRE need of rehabilitation. I am completely blasted that this mall is still standing. Any piece of real-estate in this location, 20 miles from downtown chicago, and within miles of three major interstates, should not be to waste like this! It seems like the community of Harvey has covered the mall up, so to speak. If I hadn't been tipped off by this mall, I would never have found it. Even if I had driven down Dixie Hwy, I would not have noticed the mall. Since the malls shuttering, numerous other buildings have surfaced in the outlots affronting Dixie Hwy, such as the Harvey Police Precinct and another long governmental building. A lot of the outlot buildings are also dead and rotting just like the mall, but the mall is still buried. It is actually quite a ways off Dixie Hwy, and closer to the next parallel road east. The easiest entrance was off 151st Street, just east of Dixie Hwy.

Harvey in and of itself is completely downtrodden. The economic base of this community is as bad if not worse than in Jennings, MO. There seems to be no saving grace here, what with the mass exodus of people for suburbs further out or even back to the city. The inner-ring suburb problem has a poster child in Harvey. The boarded up businesses and houses don't just occur near the mall, they occur everywhere in the city.

If anyone has more information on this mall, or perhaps a link to some info, feel free to E-Mail me about it - I'd be VERY interested. In terms of deadmalls, this one takes the cake. I've heard of and seen malls that have sat abandoned for 5-6 years (see River Roads) but this has been sitting abandoned for 22 years and looks no worse for wear, really.

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rick’s Commentary:

User submitted Jun 2011

My dad was a marketing guru back in the 1960's and 70's. His clients included Hillside mall and Dixie Square Mall. When they refused to listen to his ideas, he dropped them as clients. Dixie square: As the crime rate increased, the mall decided to install security cameras. They were too cheap to purchase ones with zoom lenses that could be mounted up high. So they mounted them about 12 feet up on the walls. Every single one was stolen the following evening!

The mall manager was a muscle-car fan, so as a fountain sculpture, he had a V-8 engine modified so it spat water from the spark-plugs. Within a year it was a rusted pile of wet junk, and the pool was rust-stained ruin. The only memorable event was the midwest launch on the game Pong in the main concourse.

Dorian’s Commentary:

User submitted Sep 2008

http://www.pawfilmworks.com/DSMHistory.html (very interesting history, from beginning to closing 1961-2006)

http://www.chucksphotospot.com/abandoned/info_dixiesqauremall.html

Dano’s Commentary:

User submitted May 2007

Harvey still singing blues over the mall

Problems continue for Dixie Square site more than a year after a plan raised hopes

By Matthew Walberg

Tribune staff reporter
Published May 4, 2007, 5:56 AM CDT

Maybe Harvey should have sold the shuttered Dixie Square Mall to Jake and Elwood. After all, the classic "Blues Brothers" police chase there may have done as much as anything to renovate the shattered hulk of a once-glorious shopping center.

Developer John Deneen promised a new shopping area anchored by major "big-box" retailers, but less than two years later, his project has dissolved into environmental lawsuits, foreclosure proceedings and criminal charges.

It formally began in February 2006 when the City of Harvey sold the 57-acre site at 153rd Street and Dixie Highway to Deneen's Emerald Property Group. Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg and other area politicians hailed the project as a long-overdue infusion of economic hope and vitality into the poor, crime-ridden community.

"John F. Kennedy once said that a rising tide raises all ships," Kellogg said then in a news conference at the site, as heavy equipment clawed at the buildings behind him.

But now, there's only a tide of lawsuits seeking foreclosure on the property for millions in unpaid loans and bills. Plus, the Illinois attorney general has filed a civil suit against Deneen and Harvey for alleged improper asbestos handling and removal at the site.

Then last month, felony charges were filed against Deneen, 40, who is accused of threatening one of his creditors with guns and brass knuckles.

Dixie Square opened in 1966 and prospered as one of the state's first enclosed shopping malls until about 1976, when it steadily declined, the victim of poor management, competition from other malls and an increase in crime and poverty in the surrounding community.

The doors were shut in 1979, though they famously reopened for the "Blues Brothers" scene in which John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd led police on a wild car chase through the building.

In the nearly three decades since, there have been a number of proposals to reclaim the site—as a mausoleum, an industrial park, a commercial-residential development and at one point, the new home of the Chicago White Sox.

None of those panned out, but Deneen's project seemed to signal brighter days. Kellogg touted the project as providing $250 million of the $400 million in economic development his leadership brought to Harvey since he became mayor in 2003.

The project was supposed to bring 1,000 jobs to town and eliminate what had been an eyesore for a generation.

"From now on, however, we can refer to it as the miracle on Dixie Highway," Kellogg said at the 2006 groundbreaking.

Within months, at least five companies had placed liens on the property, which by then was listed under the name 15301 Dixie Highway LLC—a limited liability company formed by Deneen and DD South Development Inc., a Glenview-based company whose president is J.E. Miles.

Court filings show Atlantic/Insulco Environmental Services Inc. filed liens totaling more than $422,000 for asbestos removal contracts it claims were fulfilled but never paid. MAVO Systems Illinois LLC filed a lien against the property for more than $184,000, and United Analytical Services Inc., a lien for nearly $73,000. In August, Chicago-based United Demolition filed a lien for $450,000 in unpaid bills.

In September the company that held the mortgage, ALSJ Inc., initiated foreclosure, alleging 15301 Dixie Highway LLC and its members failed to make any mortgage payments or accompanying late fees.

At the time, the loan plus interest and late fees totaled more than $1.1 million, and the interest was accruing at a rate of 1 percent of the total per week, according to court records.

In February, ALSJ Inc. sold the mortgage to another company owned by Miles, Glenview-based Main Street Capital Inc., which is continuing the mortgage foreclosure.

Charged with intimidation

The furor over the property has spilled into the Cook County Criminal Courts.

On March 30, Deneen was arrested and later charged with armed violence, intimidation and unlawful use of a weapon, and an alleged accomplice, Johnnie Blackman, 50, of Calumet City was charged with intimidation and armed violence.

Prosecutors alleged the pair went to United Demolition's office on the West Side of Chicago looking for owner William Marino. Deneen and Blackman—allegedly armed with brass knuckles, a .22-caliber handgun with a silencer and a shotgun concealed in a shipping tube—pounded on his door, yelling, "I'm going to get you," authorities said.

Deneen and Blackman were ordered held on $350,000 bail each. The charges against Blackman were later dropped due to insufficient evidence, but Deneen is due in court May 14, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office said. Deneen was released April 16 after posting bail.

Even before closing on the property, Harvey allowed Emerald Property Group and several contractors to begin asbestos removal, but in December 2005, the Illinois attorney general's office sued Deneen's company, the city and others, alleging improper handling and disposal of the carcinogenic material.

The suit is ongoing, and Deneen was ordered to have the toxic material cleaned up by Aug. 1, said Matt Dunn, chief of environmental enforcement for the attorney general.

Attempts to reach Deneen for comment were unsuccessful, and William Hurley, an attorney listed in court records as representing him in the foreclosure actions, declined to comment.

'Exploring options'

Kellogg's office would only say "the city is exploring all of its options. . . . No further comment will be made."

As recently as this year's municipal campaign, Kellogg touted the project as a major achievement of his first term.

"When I took the oath of office, I pledged to every citizen that significant economic development would be the core of our administration," he said in a statement posted on Cook County Clerk David Orr's municipal election Web site. "The proof of our success can be seen in the following developments brought to the City of Harvey."

The new shopping site was supposed to open for business in October. But for the foreseeable future, it is likely to remain a collection of half-demolished buildings where no one can buy anything—not a full tank of gas, or a half pack of cigarettes. Not even a pair of dark sunglasses.

Gene Savage’s Commentary:

User submitted Apr 2007

(http://www.dailysouthtown.com/business/325138,041BIZ2.article)

April 4, 2007

By Mike Nolan Staff writer

With the arrest of the man who'd promised to turn the derelict Dixie Square Mall into a new retail destination, what is the future of the long-shuttered shopping center?

Two Harvey alderman think the city is back to square one with the redevelopment of the mall, 153rd Street and Dixie Highway.

Two years after boasting of plans to bring retailers such as Kohl's and Old Navy to Harvey, John Deneen is accused of weapons violations, armed violence and intimidation.

He was arrested by police Friday on Chicago's West Side, outside the office of a contractor he's having a legal dispute with. Inside his vehicle, police found a 12-gauge shotgun and .22-caliber pistol.

Ald. Ronald Waters, who a year ago voted against selling the mall property to Deneen, described him as "all hoopla and fanfare but very little substance."

Deneen talked about bringing big-box retailers to Harvey but has so far produced "just a big box of lies," said Waters, who's challenging Mayor Eric Kellogg in the April 17 election.

Kellogg counts the Dixie Square project as a $250 million development, and part of some $400 million in economic development he's brought to the distressed city.

Harvey spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado said the city had no comment regarding Deneen's arrest and its possible impact on the mall project.

Aside from his vision for Harvey, Deneen talked up plans to build a water park and retail center in Dolton, affordable new homes in Robbins and a factory in Chicago Heights. None of the projects has come to fruition.

"Every African-American community around here, he promised them a pie in the sky," Waters said.

Harvey's city council voted in February 2006 to sell the mall property to Deneen. Waters was the lone dissenting vote, claiming the city was being "hoodwinked" by the purported developer. He was criticized at the time for his stance but said he now feels vindicated.

"The man's reputation, as far as I'm concerned, is not very clean," Waters said.

Ald. Frank Piekarski, who's not seeking re-election, said he's not heard a word from Deneen since the city handed over the title to him about a year ago. Typically, the city would ask a developer from time to time for a status report on a project, but that hasn't been the case with Dixie Square.

"This is another situation of a bad deal," Piekarski said. "I hate this because we don't need this kind of stuff."

Before his arrest last week, Deneen insisted that work had been held up at the mall because of an ongoing lawsuit over asbestos removal.

Waters said he'd like to see the city take over redevelopment of the mall. He said the city's redevelopment agreement with Deneen includes a performance clause, and the city can void the deal if Deneen doesn't live up to his end of the bargain.

The city would have to buy back the property from Deneen, who paid $500,000 for it.

Mike Nolan may be reached at (708) 633-5952.

Mike Salinas’s Commentary:

User submitted Jan 2007

Hello...found your site while searching for info on Dixie Square Mall. I've always been interested in this place ever since seeing it in the Blues Brothers movie. I took a few pics today while I was in the area. Didn't go inside, was busy around the mall today lots of people and cars etc. They are building senior housing next to the old Jewel on the mall. The mall itself still stands though. Here's a link to my photo album, you can post these pics on your site if you wish.

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1818628

These were quick pics taken today (Monday January 29th 2007) I only drove around the mall and didn't get out of the car.

I'll try and get some better pics when its not so busy in the area (maybe a sunday)

thanks

mike salinas

jerome zielinski’s Commentary:

User submitted Jan 2006

found it funny that no one has written in ! the only person who did gave the wrong information to boot . the montgomery wards store was accidentaly damaged by workers for a yet unknown reason . the store it self is to be reused by a local company for storage of his buisness's equiptment . the rest of the mall is to be either torn down (eventually ) or re-used and reworked into some type of redevelopment that is supposed to be happening there . your boy jack thomas is in the blues bros site where i regulary post photos and local news clipping from and about what is happening there . also didnt you think of asking paul mcvay about what is going on there ? seeing how he is making a film about the place ?? like i said things have been going on there for about a year from lawsuits about asbestos removal to who owns the place to the latest with the accidental destruction there . feel free to ask me and ill be gladly happy to send you the articles and some recent photos from just last week , if not thats fine to !! your loss or gain , your call .

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Tom Kelly’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2023

We lived in Harvey when I was a small child. My only memory of that mall was being taken there to have a portrait photo taken at the Sears.1967 probably, when I was 4. I still have that picture.

Amy Goodman Abramson’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2020

There is a lot of information on Dixie Square elsewhere and the mall has now been torn down. City Life was an actual disco type club open when the Mall was open, not created for the film.

Albert Wise’s Commentary:

If anyone that has anything cool to sell from Dixie Square Mall I am interested please let me know love the Mall.

Jay Eckberg’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2019

As a small child I use to come to this mall, my grandparents lived a few blocks away. I remember when they started fixing the mall up and they put up a Toy R Us sign I was so happy, only to find out that the mall wasn't reopening and instead was being used to film The Blues Brothers. I believe City Life was one of the made up stores for the film, but can't be sure. I was quite young at the time.