Regulars at Yorktown Center this summer have noticed two things going on at once. Inside, a conveyor belt now glides plates of nigiri and sashimi past diners at UZUMAKI Revolving Sushi, the AI-driven "bullet train" concept that finally opened its doors in late June after nearly two years of being the mall's most-anticipated tenant. A few doors down, Swan Wellness quietly opened alongside it, offering acupuncture, cupping, and stretching sessions run by a board-certified health coach.
Outside, past the storefronts, a different kind of activity has been reshaping the property for a year and a half: heavy equipment on the old Carson's footprint, the slow rise of apartment framing, and a green lawn where a department store used to sit. Taken separately, these look like two unrelated stories: new restaurant opens, mall gets renovated. Taken together, they tell you something more specific about where Yorktown Center is headed, and it isn't just "more places to eat."
The Belt and the Bodywork
UZUMAKI's arrival closes out a saga that started back in 2024, when the shopping center first announced it would bring Illinois its first conveyor-belt sushi concept. The restaurant serves rolls, nigiri, sashimi, and sides delivered by what the Shaw Local report from late June describes as an AI Bullet Train system, essentially small plates moving past your table so you grab what looks good rather than ordering off a menu.
Swan Wellness opening in the same wave matters for a different reason. Sushi and ice cream are entertainment tenants, the kind of business that assumes shoppers who are already there and looking for something to do. A wellness studio built around recurring appointments assumes something else: people who live close enough to make a twice-a-week habit of it. That's a small signal, but it's the same signal the rest of this redevelopment keeps sending.
The Site That Used to Be Carson's
The bigger story at Yorktown Center isn't in the storefronts at all. It's on the 12-acre parcel where the vacant Carson's building used to anchor the property. Pacific Retail Capital Partners and Synergy Construction broke ground there in November 2024, and the plan was never just to fill an empty box with another retailer. It called for demolishing the department store, building a multi-family residential tower, and carving out a park space the developers named The Square, with the whole project designed to stitch new housing directly into the shopping center rather than build it somewhere adjacent.
Jonathan Rood, executive vice president of development at PRCP, framed the ambition plainly when the project broke ground:
"We are pleased to have broken ground at Yorktown which will ultimately result in multiple multifamily buildings and The Square, and are deeply appreciative of the support The Village has provided us throughout this process."
The Village of Lombard's involvement is worth pausing on. This wasn't a developer showing up with blueprints and asking for a permit. Multiple accounts of the groundbreaking describe PRCP and Synergy working directly with the Village on design and strategy, which is part of why the project reads less like a typical mall refresh and more like a negotiated piece of town planning.
Phase one, targeted for completion by summer 2026 when the project was announced, included the Carson's demolition, the start of construction on the residential building now known as Yorktown Reserve, and the opening of The Square itself. That timeline lines up with what's visible on the property right now.
Here's how the last thirteen months have stacked up, tenant by tenant:
| When | What arrived | Where |
|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Gia Mia Italian Bistro | Former RA Sushi space, next to Dave & Buster's |
| Fall 2025 | Cold Stone Creamery | Center court, near the children's play area |
| Late June 2026 | UZUMAKI Revolving Sushi | New standalone location |
| Late June 2026 | Swan Wellness | Adjacent to UZUMAKI |
Gia Mia, from BG Hospitality Group and chef Brian Goewey, marked its seventh location and tenth anniversary with the Yorktown opening, joining a run of additions that also includes Empire Burgers + Brew and Ancho & Agave. None of that is new information to anyone who's driven past the center in the past year. What is worth noticing is the pattern underneath it: every one of those openings landed while a residential tower was rising fifty yards away.
Six Hundred Units, Then Seven Hundred
The unit counts attached to this project have crept upward as the plan has grown, and the discrepancy itself is the more interesting fact than either number alone. When PRCP and Synergy broke ground in November 2024, the announcement described The Square as surrounded by roughly 600 residential units. Yorktown Center's own redevelopment page now describes the fuller build-out at over 700 units, a figure that includes a second, adjacent project called Summit at Yorktown, a 90-unit residential community with its own communal green space, currently in demolition on what had been a convenience center on the property.
That's not a rounding difference. It's a developer who started with one apartment tower and a park, watched leasing interest and retail momentum build, and came back with a second residential phase before the first one had even finished. For a shopping center that spent the past two decades as a place people drove to and left, that's a meaningfully different bet on how people will use the property going forward.
What Changes for People Who Already Live Nearby
If you already shop or eat at Yorktown Center, here's what's actually different for you, separate from the marketing language:
- The park is new inventory, not just landscaping. The Square is designed to host pop-up markets, concerts, and art activations, which means evening and weekend programming that didn't exist on this property before.
- Smaller tenants are shifting position, too. WickedBall, the arcade-style entertainment venue, moved from the outdoor plaza into an interior spot, and pet retailer It's So Fluffy expanded into a larger location. Neither is a headline opening, but both suggest the center is reorganizing its interior traffic patterns around the new residential entrance, not just adding to the edges.
- The anchor retailers aren't going anywhere. H&M, Von Maur, LOFT, and Last Chance remain part of the mix, alongside The Fresh Market and Tapville Social. The redevelopment is additive, not a teardown of what already worked.
- A 1.2 million-square-foot property just got a second front door. With more than 150 specialty stores and 15 restaurants already on site before this wave of construction, Yorktown Center was never small. What's changing is which entrance people use to get there, on foot, from an apartment they can see from their kitchen window.
The Corner That Used to Be Carson's
None of this means Yorktown Center has become a different place overnight. It means the corner that used to be an empty department store now has a name, a park, and a growing number of people who will walk to dinner rather than park for it. The sushi belt and the acupuncture table are real, but they're not the story. The story is that a shopping center built for people who were just passing through is being rebuilt, deliberately, for people who plan to stay.
If you're weighing what a changing commercial corridor like this means for property values or timing in Lombard, that's a conversation worth having with someone who watches these shifts as they happen, not after they're finished. Team Baker has spent years tracking how western suburb development actually plays out on the ground. Contact us if you want a read on what a project like this could mean for your street, your timeline, or your next move.
