THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: A Shopper in the Village Mall in Danville.
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DANVILLE — It’s a week before Christmas and all through the Village Mall, a few mall walkers and shoppers were stirring, and some store employees are still waiting for the holiday rush.
Holiday decor welcomes those inside the mall, but there’s no Santa or train in the center court like years past.
The largely empty mall still has holiday shoppers picking up those last-minute gifts including at Joann Fabrics and Crafts, Bath and Body Works, Citi Trends, Hibbett Sports, Shoe Sensation, Ross Dress for Less and Dunham Sports.
Mall shoppers and employees are hopeful for the mall to fill back up under the new ownership.
According to mall management, they are in the process of finalizing a lease with Five Below, but it’s not yet been signed. The discount store will be going into the old Garfield’s restaurant spot. The exact layout still is being discussed and finalized with the lease negotiations.
The mall also is nearing completion of a lease with a movie theater chain, and the hopes are to have the lease soon finalized, with an estimated opening date of mid-to-late 2025.
Local shoppers are thrilled for a mall comeback.
Audra Armstrong of Indiana works at OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center in Danville and popped into the mall on Wednesday to get some last-minute items at Bath and Body Works and look at wrapping paper at Joann’s.
She said she likes having the mall in Danville, and she appreciates the local stores where she can shop.
Tilton resident Meghann Mullendore, who also was doing some holiday shopping on Wednesday, said she comes into Joann’s more often than other stores at the mall because her daughter loves to make crafts.
“We go to Dunham’s because my daughter’s involved in sports and stuff and so it’s a convenient place to shop,” she said.
Mullendore hopes the mall will have a comeback with the new owner.
“It’d be nice to have more things local so you don’t have to go to Champaign or elsewhere, and just bring some things back into the community,” she said.
Shoe Sensation assistant manager Amanda Moll grew up in the Bismarck area and remembers when the mall was full of stores and people.
“In my high school years, that’s where we hung out at,” Moll said.
Moll said she hasn’t seen a big holiday rush of shoppers yet. Usually shoppers who come in, they go to Shoe Sensation after having been to a couple other stores in the mall.
“If we do (get a big rush of last-minute shoppers), it’ll probably be more like the day before Christmas,” she said. “The last few years, that’s usually how it’s been.”
Popular shoe brands for shoppers are Converse, Crocs and Hey Dude, Moll said.
She too is hopeful for a new restaurant, stores and a movie theater to come back to the mall.
Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. was to have a meeting with new mall owner Jimmy Virk in November, but Virk had to cut his trip short due to a family emergency and they didn’t have their mall update meeting, Williams said.
Williams is working to reschedule a meeting with Virk at the beginning of the new year.
In addition to a movie theater, Five Below and other anchor store talk, other phases for the mall that have been discussed are bringing back a restaurant and having an indoor family entertainment center.
“I think they’re still on track toward that,” Williams said.
His hope is that the tentative plans that had been outlined still will occur.
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