Malls · Illinois

Forest Park Mall

From the authors' mapReinhabitedRetrofit builtForest Park, IL

Reinhabited in 1997. · from the fields below

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Site profile18 elements · what this retrofit is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Finance and pipeline

On Facebook

This site: …https://www.facebook.com/116035151758544 overture · all sites with this

Website dead or redirecting

This site: …http://www.livingwd.org overture / http check · all sites with this

Place

100k+ jobs within 45 min by transit

This site: 320,275 epa-walkability · all sites with this

15-minute neighbourhood (5+ of 6 daily needs within 800 m)

This site: 6/6 openstreetmap · all sites with this

County lost 10%+ of retail establishments since 2012

This site: -11% census-cbp · all sites with this

County permitting 2,000+ apartment units a year

This site: 4,853 units, Cook County census-bps · all sites with this

County typical rent $2,000+

This site: $2,228/mo zillow · all sites with this

Grocery within 800 m

This site: 4 stores openstreetmap · all sites with this

High heat wave risk

This site: Relatively High fema-nri · all sites with this

High inland flooding risk

This site: Very High fema-nri · all sites with this

High natural hazard risk (FEMA NRI)

This site: Relatively High; tornado, inland flooding, heat wave, cold wave fema-nri · all sites with this

High social vulnerability tract (SVI ≥ 0.75)

This site: 0.79 cdc-svi · all sites with this

High tornado risk

This site: Very High fema-nri · all sites with this

Shrinking county

This site: -0.7% census-acs · all sites with this

Walkable block group (EPA ≥ 12)

This site: …index 17.2 epa-walkability · all sites with this

Scale

Building footprint 50,000+ m²

This site: 64,290 m² overture · all sites with this

Strategy

Reinhabited

This site: Reinhabitation: retail and religious record · all sites with this

New use

Retail (continued)

This site: Reinhabitation: retail and religious arcgis-webmap · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

From the authors' map

IL, Forest Park: Forest Park Mall/ Living Word Christian Center, 1997
• Reinhabitation: retail and religious

Now

Status	Retrofit builtderived from authors' map (retrofit year present) reported
Strategy	Reinhabitedauthors' map reported
What is there now	Reinhabitation: retail and religiousauthors' map reported
Retrofit year	1997authors' map reported

Securitised debt and public filers

Filings (2001 to date) that name “Forest Park Mall” and “Forest Park” (3 hits, first 3 sampled, 1 other filers such as tenants left out). No commercial-mortgage trust names this mall in the sample, which does not rule out a securitised loan. Text matches, not a title search. Open the search · all trusts.

Kind	Filer	Filings	Dates	Forms
Public owner (weak)	KIMCO REALTY CORP (KIM, KIM-PL, KIM-PM, KIM-PN)	2	2015-02-27 to 2016-02-26	10-K 2

Site context

FEMA flood zone	X · AREA OF MINIMAL FLOOD HAZARDFEMA NFHL
EPA-regulated facilities within 500 m	15: 7 ELEVEN 26063; ARMY RESERVE CTR; BLUE CAB CO/M&C MOTORS; COURTESY HOME CENTER; E&F COACH PARTS INCEPA FRS
Census tract 17031816100	5,679 people, 2,403 per sq mi; median household income $62,389; median gross rent $1,309; 40% renters; 10.4% vacant units; 14.7% commute by transitACS 2023 5-year
Walkability (EPA, block group)	index 17.2 of 20; 133 intersections per sq mi; nearest transit stop 284 m; land-use mix 0.83; 428,090 jobs within 45 min by car, 320,275 by transit; 13% of households without a carEPA Smart Location
Within a 10–15 minute walk (800 m)	6 of 6 daily needs: 4 grocers, 4 schools, 5 parks or playgrounds, 1 health, 1 civic, 13 food and drink; 2 cycleway segments, 242 sidewalk-tagged segmentsOpenStreetMap
Opportunity Zone	noHUD
Housing permits, Cook County (IL), 2024	4,853 units in 5+ unit buildings, 512 in 2–4, 1,142 single-family; 2023: 3,332 in 5+Census BPS
Social vulnerability (CDC SVI 2022, tract)	overall percentile 0.79; socioeconomic 0.64; housing and transport 0.87; 19% below 150% of poverty; 12% of households with no vehicleCDC/ATSDR
Other atlas sites nearby	2 within 10 km, 27 within 25 km: Sears (lower level) at North Riverside Park Mall (1.8 km); The Brickyard (7.4 km)computed
Overture Maps	place Living Word Christian Center (christian_place_of_worship, confidence 0.98, from Overture, Overture-signals, meta); building footprint 64,290 m², 11.5 mOverture (CDLA-Permissive 2.0)
Website and social	www.livingwd.org (down or redirecting, status 403) · social: facebookOverture / Internet Archive
Tract change 2013–2023	population -10% (6,313 → 5,679); median income +11% ($56,136 → $62,389); renters 38% → 40%; median home value +33% ($225,100 → $300,300)Census ACS 5-year
Natural hazard risk (FEMA National Risk Index, tract)	relatively high overall (score 94.8); expected annual loss $3.8M; high: tornado, inland flooding, heat wave, cold wave; community resilience relatively highFEMA NRI
Tax-credit housing within 1 km	noneHUD LIHTC
Retail trade in the county, 2025 (BLS QCEW)	213,302 jobs in 12,604 establishments; average annual pay $43,743; employment location quotient 0.83; employment -0.6% on the yearBLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 44-45, private
Jobs located in the tract, 2022	7,541 jobs; 1,345 in retail trade, 229 in accommodation and food (workplace blocks summed to tract 17031816100)Census LEHD LODES8 WAC 2022
Upward mobility (Opportunity Atlas, 2010 tract)	children of low-income (25th percentile) families reached the 40th income percentile as adults; 3.5% incarcerated at the 2010 count (722 children in the sample); born 1978–83, measured 2014–15Opportunity Insights
Food access (USDA FARA 2019, 2010 tract)	not a low-access tract at 1 mile; 0% of residents more than 1 mile from a supermarket; poverty rate 8.0%; median family income $81,641; 297 SNAP householdsUSDA ERS
Schools	Proviso Township High School District 209 (09-12); 6 public schools within 1 mile: Jefferson Elem School; Forest Park Middle School; Betsy Ross Elem School; Field Stevenson Elem SchoolNCES EDGE
Elevation	625 ft above sea level at the site pointUSGS 3DEP
Storm events in the county, 2016-2025	1,091 county-logged events: 620 thunderstorm wind, 164 hail, 133 flood, 82 flash flood; $1,049,471,000 property damage reported; forecast-zone events (most flood, winter and heat) not countedNOAA Storm Events
Homes for sale in ZIP 60130, 2026-09	median list price $336,975 (-0.9% on the year); 29 active listings; median 36 days on market; 14% with a price cutRealtor.com Research
Retail trade in the county, 2012 to 2023	13,577 establishments (-11%); 214,575 jobs (-4%)Census CBP
Housing market in the county	typical home value $340,258 (+6% 1 yr, +23% 5 yr); typical rent $2,228/mo (+5% 1 yr), 2026-09Zillow Research
House price index, tract, 2025	468 (2000 = 100); +6.2% 1 yr, +31% 5 yr, +54% 10 yrFHFA
Traffic on the busiest road within 600 m (2024)	25,444 vehicles a day on Roosevelt Rd (principal arterial, 4 lanes); 1,115 trucks; 12 counted segmentsFHWA HPMS

Similar sites

Sears (lower level) at North Riverside Park Mall, North Riverside, IL · Big boxes · same strategy: reinhabit; also in IL; 2 km away
Sports Authority, Chicago, IL · Big boxes · same strategy: reinhabit; also in IL; 16 km away
Millennium On LaSalle, Chicago, IL · Office parks · same strategy: reinhabit; also in IL; 16 km away
1800 N. Clybourn, Chicago, IL · Malls · same strategy: reinhabit; also in IL; 14 km away

Elsewhere on the web

Retail history: Forest Park Mall on DeadMalls.com photos, field notes and visitor memories since 2000; matched by name and city; nothing copied here

Pages with photos

Forest Park Mall | This is the South East portion of the mal… flickr.com
Forest Park Mall Cinema in Fore… cinematreasures.org
HOBO Leaving Forest Park Mall, Landlord Says Impact 'Can Be Huge' - CBS ... cbsnews.com

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Multifamily screen

retrofit already built

Inputs: record fields (size, status) and county Census ACS 2018–2023 figures (growth, rent). How the points work. Not a recommendation.

History and original facts

Now called / also known as	Living Word Christian Center
County	Cook County
Census division	3 · East North Central

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA, year opened, original developer. Know it? Tell us.

Timeline

1997 Retrofit: reinhabit

Sources

Retrofitting Suburbia Interactive Mall Map (ArcGIS web map ce33ab26…) · 2021-01-20

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Forest Park Mall, Forest Park, IL." Record m-d2e7c68b84, from the authors' map. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/malls/il/forest-park-forest-park-mall/ (accessed 2026-10-20).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_forestparkforestparkmall,
  title = {Forest Park Mall, Forest Park, IL},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/malls/il/forest-park-forest-park-mall/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record m-d2e7c68b84, release 2026-10-20, tier: curated. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-20}
}

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