River Oaks Center, Calumet City, Illinois.

Pre-Opening Ad: River Oaks Center Formal Grand Opening October 3, 1966

A wonderful, new shopping experiece awaits you. American's most famous stores are here ... in a magnificently landscaped setting, where the sound of cascxading fountains seem to say, "Relax, stroll ... this is a center for you and your family to enjoy." This is the way shopping was meant to be! Over sixty stores and shops are dedicated to bring you unexecelled service, quality merchandise and competitive pricing. Plan to make this the first of many memorable days and evenings. There are fine restaurants to add to your pleasure ... banking abd other personal services ... plus parking accommodationa for over six thousand cars. As you will discover, whether by car of bus, River Oaks is onal a few minutes from where you live! Whatever you know about shopping ... changes when you enter River Oaks Center.

Shopping unlimited — in the tradition of Old Orchard and Oakbrook Center.

River Oaks Center, sunken Center Court, Amphitheatre area, with the 8-story Professional Building off in the distance.

River Oaks Center, 159th Street and Torrence Avenue, Calumet City, was Chicagoland's fifteenth major shopping complex. It was developed by a joint venture of the Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Life Insurance Company and Chicago's Phillip Klutznick of KLC Venture, Limited. 

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Phillip Klutznick was instrumental in creating Park Forest Plaza (1949), Old Orchard Center (1956), and Oakbrook Center (1962) shopping malls. River Oaks Center was developed by a joint venture of the Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Life Insurance Company and Chicago's Phillip Klutznick of KLC Venture, Limited. (1966)

River Oaks Center, Calumet City, Illinois, opened on October 3, 1966, with a second group of tenants opening on November 1. Mr. Klutznick had been instrumental in the creation of the Park Forest Plaza (1949), Old Orchard Center (1956) and Oakbrook Center (1962) retail hubs.

River Oaks Center Map 1966 - River Oaks Center was a cluster layout, open-air complex with sixty stores and services. When it opened in late 1966, it covered 921,000 leasable square feet and was the third-largest mall in Chicagoland. The parking area had space for 5,900 autos.

River Oaks Center sat on 100 acres, 18 miles southeast of The Loop, in suburban Calumet City. The open-air shopping center, designed by Richard Marsh Bennett of Loebl,  Schlossman, Bennett & Dart, consisted of a main retail level and basement. The $35 million complex encompassed approximately 921,000 leasable square feet.

A nighttime aerial view of River Oaks Center. We see the Sears store in the lower right, with JCPenney in the upper right.

The first operational store, Sears, opened for business on September 14, 1966. The mall was formally dedicated on October 3, 1966. Joseph Nowak, mayor of Calumet City, buried a time capsule in the mall's Center Court. Entertainment was provided by a color guard and a 100-piece band. By November 3, most of the mall's sixty stores and services were running.

Chicago's Marshall Field & Company's store spanned 260,000 square feet over 3 floors. Its in-store restaurant was called The Tea Room.

The original River Oaks anchors were a 3-level (260,000 sq. ft) Marshall Field & Company, 2-level (56,000 sq. ft), Hammond, Indiana-based Edward C. Minas Company and 2-level (347,000 sq. ft) Sears. This store was considered Sears' largest suburban location until a 416,000 sq. ft operation opened at Schaumburg's Woodfield Mall in late 1971.

The larger inline stores at River Oaks were an (18,300 sq. ft) Jewel-Osco, (20,000 sq. ft) Evans Furriers, (31,500 sq. ft) Lytton Department Stores and (34,000 sq. ft) S.S. Kresge 5 & Dime. Other charter tenants included A.M. Rothschild & Company, Fabric Mart Draperies, Baskin's Men's & Ladies Wear, Florsheim Shoes, Kroch's & Brentano's Books, C.D. Peacock Jewelers, Chandler's Shoes, Fannie May Candies and John M. Smyth Furniture Company.

Major shopping centers in the vicinity included Evergreen Plaza (1952), 10 miles northwest, in Evergreen Park, Dixie Square Mall (1966-1979), 6 miles northwest in Harvey, and Lincoln Mall (1973), 11 miles southwest, in Matteson.

The first movie theater at River Oaks Center, the ABC Great States River Oaks Dimension 150 Theatre, opened on May 30, 1969. The River Oaks 2 Theatre, across Torrence Avenue, opened in 1972 and was expanded into a 3-multiplex in 1975. In 1980, screens 5 & 6 opened in a building adjacent to the River Oaks Theatre 2 & 3. The original 1969 theater was expanded with a second auditorium in 1978. The venue became known as the River Oaks Theatre 1-4. Inside the mall, the River Oaks Theatres 7-8 was installed in space previously occupied by a Jewel Food-Osco Drug. This venue showed its first features on October 21, 1983. On December 16, 1988, the Cineplex Odeon River Oaks Cinemas 1-6 opened in a vacant S.S. Kresge space. The multiplexes across Torrence Avenue were shuttered. Theatres 7-8 remained as is. The twin-screen venue in the original 1969 theater became the River Oaks Theatre 9-10.

The mall's first anchor nameplate change occurred on October 6, 1982, when the Edward C. Minas store became the twenty-fifth Carson Pirie Scott location. By this time, the entity that had built the mall was known as the Urban Investment & Development Company. They performed A 15 million dollar mall expansion between April and November 1985.

River Oaks Center Map 1985 - Still open-air, the complex was expanded in 1984-1985. This addition brought a fourth anchor - JCPenney - and Northwest Wing (in dark gray). The gross leasable area of River Oaks Center now stood at around 1,149,000 square feet. An expanded parking area could now accommodate 6,300 autos.

A 2-level (139,000 sq. ft) JCPenney was opened on October 2. The store was part of a new Northwest Wing. A $3 million food court, the Tower Cafe, was also installed in a fully-enclosed space on the mall's lower level (previously utilized as the John M. Smyth furniture store). The Tower Cafe encompassed eleven fast-food vendors, a sit-down restaurant and nine food-related shops.

Stores brought into the mall as part of the renovation included Armstrong Jewelers, Claire's Boutique, Gingiss Formalwear, Regis Hairstylists, The Gap, The Grate Home & Fireplace Shop, Mothercare Maternity, Lechter's Housewares and World Bazaar.

At the dawn of the 1990s, River Oaks Center was still open-air. A $50 million refurbishment was announced in February 1993. Construction got underway in March. The design of the mall enclosure was handled by Jim Ryan & Associates of Southfield, Michigan.

All courts and concourses were roofed, with 80,000 square feet of fill-in retail space created. The Carson store was expanded to 62,000 square feet. Twenty-five new stores opened in March 1994, with an additional twenty-eight beginning business in May. An 8-bay Food Court on the Main Level of the complex commenced operation in August.

An "anchors away" scenario commenced with the shuttering of the 31-year-old Carson's in January 2012. Sears, which had been the mall's first operational store, went dark in June 2013 after anchoring River Oaks Center for over 46 years.

The newly-refurbished complex was re-dedicated in September 1994. Its gross leasable area had been increased to 1,229,000 square feet. There was now a total of 146 stores and services. New tenants included The Disney Store, The Bombay Company, Victoria's Secret, Mrs. Field's Cookies and The Body Shop.

River Oaks Center Map 1994. River Oaks was rebuilt into an interior mall. 80,000 square feet of store space (in gray) was added, which connected the existing storefronts to the new, fully-enclosed courts and concourses. The mall now encompassed 1,229,000 leasable square feet.

Oakbrook, Illinois-based JMB Properties and the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group established a joint venture ownership deal involving four Chicagoland malls; River Oaks Center, Hawthorn Center in Vernon Hills, Fox Valley Center in Aurora, and Orland Square Mall in Orland Park.

In November 1997, this arrangement was restructured, with Simon assuming 100 percent ownership of the River Oaks and Orland Square properties. JMB Properties became the sole proprietor of Fox Valley Center and Hawthorn Center.

The new century brought more changes to River Oaks Center. Steve & Barry's University Sportswear came and went, and Macy's took over Marshall Fields on September 9, 2006. The mall's cinema complexes were shuttered between 2005 and 2008.

The original 1969 venue was bulldozed in 2011. Cinemas 1-6 (in the old S.S. Kresge) were torn down in October 2012, followed by the razing of Theatres 7-8 (in the Jewel-Osco space) in November. The Carson's store shut down in January 2012, with Sears throwing in the towel in June 2013. The River Oaks Professional Building was demolished in early 2014.

The mall's southeast entry. This section went through a few alterations between 2012 and 2014. A vacant cinema structure, the old River Oaks 7-8, and the Professional Building office tower were demolished.

The Simon Property Group had created a spin-off Real Estate Investment Trust, known as the Washington Prime Group, that assumed ownership of River Oaks Center. 

Washington Prime Group merged with the Glimcher Realty Trust in early 2015.

River Oaks Center Map 2017 - A new owner took the helm in March 2017, and an updated logo was commissioned. Following the recent anchor store closings, the complex housed around 125 operational stores.

In March 2017, the mall was sold to a joint venture of Great Neck, New York's Masson Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group.

JCPenney and Macy's are the current anchor stores.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.