{"id":730309,"date":"2026-04-15T18:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/730309\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:37:13","slug":"chicago-seeks-to-close-ford-city-mall-citing-health-safety-risks-nbc-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/730309\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago seeks to close Ford City Mall citing health, safety risks \u2013 NBC Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The city of Chicago has filed an emergency motion to shut down Ford City Mall on the city&#8217;s southwest side due to health and safety concerns, with officials saying leaks and problems inside the building could lead to &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; structural failure. <\/p>\n<p>A statement sent to NBC Chicago by the city&#8217;s Department of Law side an emergency motion to vacate the mall, at 7601 S. Cicero Ave., was issued April 10. It was filed after both the Fire and Building Departments&#8217; concerns that the mall&#8217;s defective fire suppression system &#8220;could create an imminent health and safety risk&#8221; to tenants and shoppers. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The mall\u2019s 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&#8221; the statement read in part. <\/p>\n<p>The city added that leaks in the system that have not yet been identified threaten the land and soil supporting the mall and could potentially lead to the &#8220;creation of a sinkhole and catastrophic structural failure of portions of the mall itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>During a hearing held Monday, Judge Leonard Murray gave mall owner <a href=\"https:\/\/namdarrealtygroup.com\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/namdarrealtygroup.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Namdar Realty Group<\/a> until Thursday to respond to the motion. According to the statement, the city has been ordered to provide notice to vacate to the mall&#8217;s 16 remaining commercial tenants. <\/p>\n<p>Photos and video captured by NBC 5 photographers outside the mall Tuesday showed some windows and doors boarded up. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ford-City-Mall-board.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Ford City Mall&#8217;s website showed several open stores, including Bath &amp; Body Works, Claire&#8217;s, Foot Locker, JCPenney, LIDS, Ross and Sephora. The mall&#8217;s &#8220;About Us&#8221; page said the mall, which underwent a renovation, has more than 70 stores and restaurants.<\/p>\n<p>The mall did not provide a comment to NBC Chicago. Emails sent to Namdar Realty Group were returned as undeliverable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Chicago has filed an emergency motion to shut down Ford City Mall on the city&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":730310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818,6270,2107],"class_list":{"0":"post-730309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois","11":"tag-retail","12":"tag-shopping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}