Janesville Mall, Janesville Wisconsin

The Janesville Mall opened in 1973 with 3 anchors: Montgomery Ward, JcPenney and Charles V. Weise but the mall had an complicated construction process. Montgomery Ward was already building a store on the property when a developer decided to built a mall on the property and have Montgomery Ward as an anchor. In 1973, the Miller-Wohl Company company filed bankruptcy and decided not to open the store. This caused the mall developer to find another tenet. They asked Sears which had have a store in downtown Janesville Mall and the Beloit Plaza and Sears decided. Then they asked JcPenney to come and JcPenney took advantage and built a store on the north end of the mall. The mall than opened in September of 1973. Not many changes occurred until 1983 when Montgomery Ward announced it was closing several stores including the one in Janesville. 1985 was a busy year as Kohl's filled the Montgomery Ward space and the Charles V Weise store became Bergner's which dosen't make since they acquired Boston Store that same year. Next year the mall remolded. In 1991, the Beloit Plaza in nearby Beloit was started to struggle due to competition from Janesville Mall. Also in 1991, Begner's filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed at Beloit Plaza and renamed the Janesville store as more appropriately Boston Store. In 1997, Sears decided to relocate from Beloit Plaza to Janesville. In 2014, JcPenney closed and part of the space is now a Dick's Sporting Goods. In April 2018, Bon-Ton filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is now closing. The mall has got some remolded recently but there's not a lot of shoppers even though it was a Thursday. The mall is shaped like a J. So let's take a look at the mall!