About 90% of the former Spring Hill Mall is gone and work demolishing the final anchor store set to begin in the next couple of weeks, officials said.

More than a year after the 43-year-old shopping center closed, the vast majority now owned by the village of West Dundee has been taken down at a cost of about $4 million.

Carpentersville expects to clear the site of the one-story Kohl’s store, which closed in in April after the village purchased it and its 6-acre site for $2 million, under the terms of a recently approved intergovernmental agreement between the two municipalities. West Dundee will cover $450,000 of the $478,850 cost using money in its Spring Hill Mall Tax Increment Financing district fund. Carpentersville will pay the rest.

A fence surrounds the former Kohl’s store as Carpentersville prepares for the final Spring Hill Mall anchor store to be demolished in the next few weeks. The village plans to use the site for future redevelopment, similar to what West Dundee is planning for the rest of the property. (Gloria Casas/The Courier-News)

Both villages have hired American Demolition Corp. to do the work.

“American Demolition has been a phenomenal contractor,” West Dundee Village Manager Joe Cavallaro said. “We believed this work would take a lot longer than expected, and they are doing a great job in terms of getting this project done. … It’s gone really well.”

One hiccup in the work stemmed from asbestos found underground in the former Sears’ automotive center, adding $38,000 to the price tag, he said.

“There is still quite a bit of work left. Everything subsurface has to be removed and disposed of, like utilities and piping and foundations,” Cavallaro said.

Kohl’s is all that’s left above ground other than for the West Dundee Cinemark movie theater, which remains in business.

When the mall opened in 1980, it had two anchor stores: Marshall Field & Co., which later became Macy’s, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. Bergner’s, which became Carson Pirie Scott, and JCPenney came later, the latter replaced by Kohl’s.

West Dundee spent about $7 million purchasing most of the mall and its anchors from Kohan Retail Investment Group. Kohl’s was corporation owned and purchased separately by Carpentersville.

Carpentersville Village Manager Brad Stewart, speaking at Tuesday’s village board meeting, said he expects demolition on Kohl’s to begin in the next two weeks.

“We remain interested in discussing the location and remaining areas in our jurisdiction with any interested developers,” Stewart said.

Both villages want to replace the mall with mixed-use developments.

Carpentersville recently rezoned its portion of the property for residential use while West Dundee’s is zoned for B2 commercial, which covers a lot of development options, Cavallaro said. His village also readapted the TIF district, which is ready to use in future development deals, he said.

“Right now, we are doing all the prep work,” Cavallaro said, so that the deck is cleared for future redevelopment.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/05/spring-hill-mall-demolition-kohls-dundee-carpentersville/