In my childhood, our family would drive from a small Illinois town to Champaign/Urbana on occasion. We would always go to this mall and I felt it was luxurious(this was the mid 1970s to early 80s). And Champaign/Urbana itself was like Dubai to me.
As a college student on weekends I would take the CUMTD bus from Campustown to Market Place Mall. (I am ashamed to say how long ago that was.) I did go to the cinema at Market Place Mall to watch the Sean Connery flick "Outland". "Outland was "High Noon" in outer space.
I grew up in CU from 1977 through July 2000. It's crazy to see the changes to Market Place. I remember going to Track 5, the arcade, and of course Sears and all the other stores. Little Champaign is growing up. Thanks for the video.
The update they did to Dick's Sporting Goods in the mall this past year is insane. They have a golf simulator, hitting cages, and an indoor climbing wall. It has brought a whole lot of people in. Also, the Costco brings a ton of people in. It's always packed these days and thriving well.
I lived in Champaign-Urbana from 1994 to mid-1997 then again in late 1999-late 2005. I just moved back for good in March 2022. It has changed a LOT, though in some ways it is very much the same. When I was going to school and working at UIUC, I worked a second job at B Dalton's. I cannot remember if it was next door to JCP or Sears. I miss back when there was the movie theater out back behind MarketPlace Mall. They had a lot more places to eat back then. It is such a dead mall now, but I mainly go to JCP, Macys, Torrid, Aunt Anne's, and of course, Costco. That was the best thing I found out when I moved back to have a Costco! Thanks so much for this video!
It looks good. A few vacancies here and there but fully manageable. It also seems to have mostly national retailers rather than here-today-gone-tomorrow local ones.
