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UPDATE: Sandburg Mall On the Auction Block

T.J. Carson
Jim Smith watches a customer from behind the counter at his sports memorabilia store inside the Sandburg Mall. He's one of the longest-running tenants of the mall.

A place where customers can buy a variety of goods in Galesburg was up for sale itself.   The SandburgMall was available through an online auction that started Monday and ended on Wednesday, August 10. The auction was run by Ten-Xof California, which was accepting an opening bid of no less than $300,000.

UPDATE:  The auction yielded a winning bid of $650,000.  Zach Maloof of Maloof Commercial Realty expected to close on the transaction within the next 30 to 45 days. He said more information about the buyer will be revealed after that.

The mall’s manager declined an interview request from Tri States Public Radio and had a security guard remove this reporter from the premises. The owner of the mall couldn’t be reached for comment about the auction. 

TSPR was able to speak to one store owner inside the mall. Jim Smith has operated a sports memorabilia store in the mall for 32 years. It's currently located near the soon-to-be closed K-Mart.

Smith said the mall was once a hotspot in Galesburg.

“Oh, in its heyday every store was full,” Smith said. “You couldn’t even get a spot in the mall. Every place in the mall was full. All the places in the concourse was full. There was people everywhere. Now there’s people nowhere.”

Smith said the number of shoppers began to decline as the number of jobs in Galesburg started fading away when several factories closed in the early part of this century. He said stores began to close up as well. Ten-X's auction page for the mall indicates it is currently a little more than half-full.

Smith hoped a local ownership group will buy the building at the auction and give the mall much needed attention.

“We’ve had nothing but owners that live in California, New York, no owners have been in Galesburg that I know of,” Smith said. “You need to have an owner that’s in Galesburg that cares about Galesburg that might want to walk in the place of business that he owns.”

Smith said a local owner would respond more quickly to issues that come up at the mall and make needed repairs.  He believes a local owner would also keep a tighter leash on businesses.