Ford City Mall permanently closing on Monday

The bulk of Chicago's Ford City Mall will be permanently shut down by a court order at noon on Monday.

The main building of a once mid-century Chicago retail icon will close on Monday—something shoppers say they are not looking forward to.

"It's just like an era that's going away," said Pam Jefferson-Waits.

An era that will be gone soon for Jefferson-Waits. She came to look for a pair of jeans, but was mainly hoping to take a trip down memory lane.

"It's just part of growing up and coming here, you know, as a teenager. Even when we grew up, you know, come in the mall and we used to like to go in the tunnel. I always thought that was cool. You can go on this side and go in the tunnel and go on the other side. So it's a lot of memories," she said.

JCPenney is the only store that's still open, but with barely anything inside, just a few clothes on racks. It will also be closing at the location on Monday.

"It is sad. Even though I didn't find the jeans that I was looking for, I was just hoping I could just take a walk down the hall just for good old time's sake, ya know?" Jefferson-Waits said.

The city maintains the aging building. 

Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th) says the New York-based company called Namdar Realty Group bought it in 2019.

Court records show the realty group must maintain the fire suppression system for the entire mall complex until further order of the court.

"Namdar is not going to fix the things that needs to be fixed, like fire suppression. It's a safety hazard," Curtis said.

The alderman says there are millions of gallons of water per day that run underneath the mall between Cicero and Kostner to other businesses, as well as the Ford City Condos, but says it connects to other places that he doesn't know where it's going to.

"It's frightening because gallons of water per day is gushing out of the basement underground somewhere," he said.

Curtis pushed to have the mall closed down and is hoping to redevelop it, which would be a more than $200 million project.

"It's going to bring a lot of jobs. We had a community meeting. We talked about giving green space and things like that. So I'm excited to see what it will become," he said.

The alderman says he's meeting with the city and the new buyers on Monday. He's hoping to find out when the purchase will go through.

CBS News Chicago has reached out to Namdar Realty Group for comment but has not heard back.