Ford City Mall Slated for Warehouse Conversion

The buyer of a suburban Chicago mall wants to trade food courts for forklifts.

Chicago-based Bridge Industrial is under contract to buy Ford City Mall on the city’s Southwest Side with a $150 million plan to demolish the 960,000-square-foot shopping center and replace it with a four-building logistics complex spanning 913,000 square feet, Crain’s reported.

Namdar Realty Group, a New York-based firm known for buying distressed malls, owns the property, at 7601 South Cicero Avenue in the West Lawn neighborhood. It paid $16.6 million for the 66-acre property in 2019. More than half the mall is now vacant; only one major anchor tenant, JCPenney, remains.

The redevelopment would mark one of the most significant retail-to-industrial conversions in Chicago’s recent history, starting a new chapter for a property originally built to house aircraft production during World War II.

Bridge’s plans include 92 loading docks, 923 parking spaces and a truck route directed east toward Kostner Avenue to minimize impact on the adjacent residential neighborhood. A landscaping buffer of greenery is included in early renderings.

According to Alderman Derrick Curtis’ office, the developer will submit a zoning application to the City Council next week.

Industrial development has slowed from the pandemic-era peak, but low vacancy rates — 4.8 percent, as of March — have kept developer interest alive. Bridge, one of the region’s most active industrial players, is betting the Ford City site’s scale and location just a few miles south of Midway International Airport will make it a prime hub for logistics tenants.

Local approval is not a given. Community resistance has grown in recent years to warehouse conversions, with concerns over traffic, pollution and noise often derailing plans in suburban municipalities. Bridge says it will launch public engagement in the coming weeks.

Under the proposal, construction could begin as early as fall 2026 and open by late 2028.

— Judah Duke