The city ordered Ford City Mall closed last week over safety concerns regarding a defective fire suppression system.
Chicago’s Department of Law filed an emergency motion on April 10 to vacate the mall at 7601 S. Cicero Ave. due to health and safety concerns for mall tenants and visitors. The request followed a failed test on April 6 of the fire suppression system.
On Thursday, a Cook County judge gave the owner and tenants one week to prepare for a shut down of the property’s main building.
“The Mall’s fire suppression system has been riddled with leaks and has not been functioning properly for that past two years, which, in the event of a fire, could result in severe death and/or injury,’ the Department of Law said in a statement. “Additionally, the still unidentified leaks in the system could potentially undermine the stability of the soil supporting the Mall, and lead to the creation of a sinkhole and catastrophic structural failure of portions of the Mall itself.”
On April 13, a judge ordered the city to serve notice to the remaining 16 tenants in the once popular indoor shopping center. He also continued the case to April 16.
The mall was purchased in 2019 for $16.6 million by New York-based Namdar Realty Group, who did not respond to requests for comment.
Kurve Industrial (formerly Bridge Industrial) last July proposed buying the mall with an eye toward turning the site into a complex of four warehouses totaling more than 900,000 square feet.
The developer, who has built two smaller but similar projects in nearby Bedford Park and Summit, would spend more than $150 million on the project, according to Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th).
The project was originally expected to begin this fall, but the proposal has been stalled over the safety issues and no new timetable has been announced.