Cross County Mall (Illinois)

Cross County Mall is a shopping mall in Mattoon, Illinois, U.S. It was opened in 1971. Its only traditional anchor is JCPenney, with two vacant anchor locations last occupied by Sears and Carson's. The mall is owned by Rural King Realty.
== History ==
Chahanie Development announced the shopping center in 1967 and began construction in 1969. The first announced tenants were JCPenney, G. C. Murphy variety store, Arlan's discount store, Walgreens, an IGA supermarket, and Kinney Shoes.
Official opening ceremonies were held in October 1971, by which point many stores were already open. Both IGA and a branch of the Springfield, Illinois-based department store Myers Brothers opened on October 27. Sears joined the mall in 1972.
After Arlan's declared bankruptcy in 1973, their store closed and was converted to Kmart the following year. According to mall developers, this made Cross County Mall the first shopping center in the nation to include JCPenney, Sears, and Kmart, then the nation's three largest retailers. G. C. Murphy closed in 1976 and work began that year to convert the space to Meis, a department store based out of Terre Haute, Indiana. The Meis store opened in 1978. The same year, Bergner's purchased the Myers Brothers chain and converted all stores to the Bergner's name.
By 1981, the IGA space on the southeast end of the mall had been vacated, and it was converted into a new mall hallway. This venture proved unsuccessful and by 1988, the mall owners had attempted to turn the space into a food court. At the time, the only food options in the mall were a sandwich shop and a restaurant located inside Kmart, as Walgreens had removed its in-store diner around the same time. The food court was unable to attract restaurants, so the space was converted to an antique mall in 1990. This space is now tenanted by Jumbo Buffet.
Meis was bought out by Elder-Beerman in mid-1989. Bergner's closed at the mall after the Christmas 1989 shopping season, due to the space being too small for a full-line department store. Maurices and other stores repurposed the former Bergner's space.
Kmart moved to a larger store outside the mall in 1993. Sears moved into a larger store in the vacated Kmart space a year later. Soon afterward, the original Sears building became Wolf Furniture. The space was later a medical training center, and became the offices for the city's newspaper. Walgreens moved out of the mall in 2003. In 2011, Elder-Beerman was rebranded as Carson's. In September 2011 Borders Group bookstore closed. Sears closed at the mall in late 2014.
Major tenants in the mall as of 2014 included Joann Fabrics, Christopher & Banks, rue21, and Shoe Dept. On March 26, 2016, RadioShack closed its doors.
On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Carson's would be closing on August 31, 2018 as parent company The Bon-Ton Stores is going out of business which will leave J. C. Penney as the only anchor left until January 2019 when Rural King opens in the former Sears. 
In 2017, Rural King acquired the mall and announced plans to move a store support center into the former Sears. On July 2, 2018 a new 11 for $10 store opened in the former Hallmark space in the mall. On July 12, 2018 Rural King announced they will move their Mattoon store into the former Sears location in January 2019.
On August 31, 2018 Super Jumbo Buffet Chinese restaurant closed and was replaced by Scotty's Brewhouse which opened December 10, 2018.
On March 24, 2020, it was announced that JCPenney would be closing as part of a plan to close 18 stores nationwide. The store will close in May 2021, which will leave the mall with no traditional anchors.
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in Illinois
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls that opened in 1971
Category:Single-Level Malls
Category:Rural King-anchored Properties