Alton Square Mall
Alton Square Mall is a shopping mall located in Alton, Illinois. Its anchor store is JCPenney. A second anchor structure formerly housed a Sears, while a third anchor structure, housing a Macy's, was demolished in 2017. History. The mall was built by The May Department Stores Company and groundbreaking began in 1976. The Famous-Barr anchor store, a division of May, was the first portion of the mall to open, on October 16, 1978. The remainder of the mall, including the J. C. Penney anchor store, opened on November 15, 1978. It was later sold to  May Centers, Inc., the mall development arm of May Department Stores. They subsequently sold it to CenterMark Properties Inc. of St. Louis, which sold it to Melvin Simon and Associates of Indianapolis in February 1993. A third anchor structure, Sears, was added during a renovation in 1997. The Famous-Barr anchor store was converted to Macy's in 2006. Simon Property Group Inc. sold the mall to Coyote Management of Texas in 2007. In 2009, a 10-screen Premiere Cinemas theater was announced for the mall, but it did not open. Coyote Management sold the mall to NorthMarq Capital in  2010. Sears closed on June 3, 2012. Sears was converted to Illinois Wholesale Furniture, which also soon closed. In 2015, NorthMarq sold the mall to Hull Property Group. That same year, a Ross Dress For Less store was added, along with Hibbett Sports. In March 2017, Family Christian Stores closed, and Hull Property Group announced a redevelopment of the mall. The old Sears site would be made into a movie theater. Macy's, which also closed in 2017, was demolished. As part of the redevelopment, the smaller stores from the second level would be moved to the first level so  they could have room for 5 anchor stores. In May 2017, the mall announced that Hallmark and Things Remembered would both be closing their locations inside the mall. On November 22, Vitamin World announced they would close all their St. Louis area stores, including the Alton Square Mall location. In February 2019, Slackers CDs and Games announced it would be moving to the Christian bookstore's former space from elsewhere in Alton.