Origins
In 1970, developer Roger Benjamin began scouting a site to construct a strip mall featuring Welles, a Midwestern discount department store chain. Flying over southern Wisconsin, he identified acres of open land in the Town of Janesville along Milton Avenue, between the main downtown streets and Interstate 90. Benjamin determined that with nearly 200,000 people, the Janesville trading area had a large enough population and sufficient financial resources to support a mall. Montgomery Ward had already begun to build a store on one of the sites he was considering.
Benjamin and two partners created Janesville Properties Company, which purchased 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land adjoining the Montgomery Ward site, and began planning the development. With the agreement of Montgomery Ward management, Benjamin modified his original plan for a strip mall in favor of an enclosed mall where Welles and Montgomery Ward would serve as anchor stores. Within a year, Rockford-based department store Charles V. Weise (owned by Bergner's) signed on to become a third anchor; its store would be located midway between the other department stores, and a prominent central courtyard would be constructed outside its entrance. Plans to construct the $10 million enclosed mall were announced in November 1970 with groundbreaking set for spring 1971.
In early 1973, the Miller-Wohl Company (which owned the Welles chain) declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy and terminated its plans to open a store in Janesville. The sudden loss of Welles forced a search for another tenant to occupy the partially constructed north anchor slot. Mall developers approached Sears, which operated a store in downtown Janesville. Sears declined, as it already operated a mall location in nearby Beloit Plaza. J.C. Penney (which also owned a small store in downtown Janesville) agreed instead to fill the already-built Welles space, which was subsequently enlarged at J.C. Penney's request.
Read more about this topic: Janesville Mall
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