Carson's May Close In Evergreen Park, Orland, Chicago Ridge

EVERGREEN PARK, IL -- Four south suburban brick-and-mortar malls stand to lose one of their anchor stores before the end of the year after a liquidation group won Bon-Ton Stores Inc. in an auction, including all of the company’s assets. The sale could effectively put an end to Carson’s stores in Orland Park, Chicago Ridge, Chicago’s Ford City, and a new prototype Carson’s store that opened 2015 in the rebooted Evergreen Plaza. The Carsons stores will close within the next 10 to 12 weeks, according to reports.

Bon-Ton operates 260 stores in 24 states, mostly in the northeast and midwest, under the Bon-Ton, Boston Store, Bergner’s, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates. In January, the struggling retailer announced that it was shuttering seven Illinois stores.

During his state-of-the-village address to the Evergreen Park Chamber of Commerce, before the full liquidation details became available, Mayor James Sexton expressed optimism that village’s Carson’s store, the soul of the Evergreen Plaza redevelopment, would prevail. Sexton told business owners that he’s had several conversations about Carson’s with Bloomfield Hills, MI-based Lormax Stern, the firm developing the Plaza.

“They were confident the store would be okay,” Sexton said. “I don’t know the details because it’s in bankruptcy court. It’s a brand new store and they’re doing very well.”

The Village of Orland Park is also dealing with the loss of retail-based tax revenue as major retailers across the nation go out of business. With 2017 sales tax revenue dipping 2-percent from the year before, the village board was forced trim programs from the village’s budget.

“I’ve been saying this for years,” Orland Park Tr. Jim Dodge said in a news release, who chairs the Technology, Innovation and Performance Improvement Committee. “We, as a board, need to address the revenue challenges that we are facing and also address the village’s cost structure. The glory days of increasing revenue from retail stores are over.”

Chicago Ridge Mall at Ridgeland and 95th is bookended by Carson’s and Sears -- also on the ropes -- with Aldi’s, Kohl’s, Old Navy and an AMC movie theatre completing the mid-flank.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have been struggling with the effects of online retail stores like Amazon, specialty and discount stores. The announcement that Bon-Ton was going out of business comes on the heels of the liquidation of Toys R Us and Sears.

Bon-Ton issued a statement Wednesday:

On April 18, 2018, Bon-Ton officially announced Bankruptcy Court approval of the sale of the inventory and substantially all of the Company’s assets. As such, Bon-Ton will conduct an orderly wind-down of its operations and is committed to minimizing the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors and the communities we serve.

We expect the liquidation process in all Bon-Ton stores to begin shortly. Throughout the store closing sales, our stores, e-commerce and mobile platforms under the Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s and Younkers nameplates will remain open and serving customers. We will continue to provide more details on our going out of business sales in the near term.
On behalf of all of us, thank you for your support and business.

File photo by Patch Editor Lorraine Swanson