The five star swap in this place is the go to place. It had everything from clothes, furniture, food, arcade games, etc. I highly recommend the restaurant in the entrance closest to the gym. The best tacos I've ever had, bar none. read more

You sure said it well Johnny A. It once was a nice mall with the stores you mentioned K-Mart moved to 83 and St Charles. Penny's was always busy with shoppers..How things have changed over the years. Just like alot of malls are empty or closing. Winston Plazza in Melrose Park was the same as North Park Mall at one time. read more

** This place (and the surrounding stores) USED TO BE "North Park Mall" - the actual building technically still exists, but the mall area is now called "North Park Center" (or possibly even "5 Star Swap") in addition to some other adjacent stores such as HOBO, a pet store, Asian restaurant, etc. Driving home today, I decided to stop in here and have a look around what "once was" North Park Mall and the remnants that remain of the mall. There was really nothing I needed here, but wanted to see what became of the mall or what was once left inside. This mall was active probably in the 80s and into the mid to late 90s. It tapered slowly in the early 2000's when the main anchor stores shut down and stores inside the mall followed suit until most of the mall walking area was just closed off, and just became a swap meet space as it stands today. Note: The "mall" as I last remember it (probably 2005 was the last time I was in here) - was still an empty mall with a FEW little stores here and there, mostly occupying a small section of the mall - meaning you could still walk around the empty mall, but a majority of the old store locations were just boarded up. I used to go to Alien Entertainment here to look at Star Wars and other sorts of collectibles. Seems they moved out, as I didn't see it here. There USED to be a Garibaldi's restaurant connected to the mall which had been a staple for years - that is now gone and has been for about the last 5 years. Even though mostly dead, as stated you STILL WERE able to walk around what was once the famous mall. As to what remains today of the "mall" - NOT MUCH. I walked in the what was once the main mall entrance, and now it is just a very small section of "swap meet" type of stores or kiosks and some low end jewelry or clothing shops on either side. In the doorway there were some cool posters taped on the wall advertising local "lucha libre" wrestling events, I thought about taking one but then saw paper signs stating that there were "cameras all over", so it wasn't worth getting a ticket or arrested for taking some old beat up ripped poster off a wall. The brown tile FLOOR is still the same as I remember it. Hehe. There is a cell-phone kiosk right as you walk in and a very cute Latina girl was working it. Behind that was a kiosk which appeared to be a place where you can get "keys" made. Behind that were two hallways - one had a sign which said "Obama-care enrollees this way" and the other hall-way led to what appeared to be an insurance office. From what I saw, the stores seemed to cater mainly to a Latino demographic. The hallway in the back - for those who remember the old mall set-up, is where the old JC Penney outlet store used to be. You can still see the mall section thru a gate and another store entrance (I believe 'HOBO') of where Penney's used to be, but it is now blocked off - and to enter HOBO, you have to access it from the outside. Further back (behind a plywood wall and about 5 doors?) is a another swap meet section selling jewelry, dresses, toys, costume, and other kids nick-knacks. I did see remnants of the old "HOT SAM" pretzel and nacho place that was in the mall YEARS ago. It is now some food vendor under a different name. Memories and ghosts of this mall (if you want to call it that) only remain now. I still remember coming here in the late 80s as a small kid and buying baseball cards and going to 'Don's Toys and Hobbies' to look at their hot-wheel toys. In it's day there was a Hair Crafter's, shoe stores, book stores, Hallmark, and even also a K-mart (back when K-Marts were still pretty popular) and well as probably 25-35 other typical mall stores inside. Nothing remains here really from the old days, or even 5 years ago. I posted a picture (probably at least 10 years old) of how the old entrance to the mall once looked. It appears even the strip mall as a whole is not referred to as North Park Mall anymore. Garibaldi's was one of the main reasons which drew a few people out to still walk around these stores when they did, but even that closed down several years ago. (For you people wondering - only two Garibaldi's remain: One in Hoffman Estates, and one in Arlington Heights right past Woodfield Mall on Golf Rd.) I can recommend stopping here for a few minutes only if you are in the area and want to see what this once famous mall has become, but you won't have to do a lot of walking inside. There are other stores and a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the mall entrance which may suit your needs, but you can't access those via the inside mall. There just isn't much left and I am not even sure what warrants keeping the main building even open these days. Nothing to go out of your way for, unless you like these specific swap meet stores. Just stop here if you have time to burn and want to see what this once nice mall has become over the least 20-30 years :) read more

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