By Kate King and Joe Barrett

CHICAGO -- Shoppers and retailers are returning to the Midwest's most prominent shopping strip, signaling that a budding recovery is under way on this city's famed Magnificent Mile.

The downtown Chicago corridor, a six-lane road with broad sidewalks, elaborate plantings, grand storefronts and some of the most famous names in retail, runs from the Chicago River downtown to the stately mansions of the Gold Coast. During the pandemic, the crowds of shoppers evaporated and the mile was hit by a wave of store closures and crime.

Now, visits to the Magnificent Mile are nearly back to prepandemic levels. The area's crime rate is falling, and cheaper rents are prompting retailers to lease new space.

The northern end of Michigan Avenue, dubbed the Magnificent Mile by a developer in the 1940s when it was already home to high-end retailers and luxury apartments, is again attracting major fashion brands. Canada's Aritzia late last year opened a flagship store in a long-vacant 46,000-square-foot spot.

Uniqlo, which abruptly shut its 60,000-square-foot store on Michigan Avenue in 2021, this month said it is returning to the Magnificent Mile with a 29,600-square-foot new flagship store. Michigan Avenue is also luring a number of experiential retailers, such as the Harry Potter Shop.

"The Magnificent Mile remains an iconic, historical shopping destination welcoming locals and visitors alike," said Fuminori Adachi, chief executive of Uniqlo's U.S. subsidiary. "Following the challenges of the pandemic that cities across the U.S. faced, we're excited to see a positive trend in visitor traffic."

The area is still a far cry from its peak period about 15 years ago, when the vacancy rate was 7%. The rate today is about 25%, according to local real-estate brokerage Stone Real Estate. But it is finally moving in the right direction, down slightly from 2023 when the number of empty storefronts peaked at 26%.

"The Avenue is still in recovery mode," said John Vance, a principal at Stone Real Estate. "But it looks better."

Other parts of Chicago's retail scene have recovered faster. Luxury retailers including Cartier and Bottega Veneta left Michigan Avenue for the nearby Gold Coast neighborhood. But that shopping corridor is now fully leased, Vance said, prompting some retailers to turn back to the Magnificent Mile.

Lower rents have also helped. Prices have fallen about 24% on Michigan Avenue since 2019, according to Vance.

A flurry of new experiential tenants represent a broadening from the neighborhood's fashion-centered identity. The Museum of Ice Cream, where visitors can jump into a giant pool of oversize plastic sprinkles, opened in 2022. Next spring, a magic venue called The Hand & The Eye is slated to open with performance areas and a members-only entrance.

On a recent blustery weekday, the Magnificent Mile's enduring appeal, recent comeback -- and a few of its challenges -- were on full display.

Customers browsed inside luxury anchors such as Gucci, Bulgari and Bloomingdale's, amid fall foliage and a mix of modern and Gothic Revival architecture.

Shoppers were also streaming into the Harry Potter Shop, which opened in April. Zoya Popivker, 41 years old, a child psychiatrist in town from New York for a conference, spent about $25 on chocolate frogs for her children.

"I actually had some concerns coming to Chicago, it being on the news," she said. "I was surprised about how lively it is. Even though it's windy and it's chilly, people are out and about. You can really feel the energy of the city."

But a smattering of empty storefronts up and down the strip advertised things such as "Flagship Retail Available."

Crime, a perennial sore spot for Chicago, has sparked heated back-and-forths between Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and President Trump, who has threatened to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.

The crime rate has fallen 4% year-over-year in Chicago's 18th Police District, which includes the Magnificent Mile. Kimberly Bares, the Magnificent Mile Association's CEO, said her organization hired private security to patrol the strip to deter criminal activity.

Still, there have been arrests following several high-profile smash-and-grabs in the area in recent weeks, including at the Louis Vuitton and Rolex stores.

And where the amount of vacant space on other prominent luxury shopping streets, such as Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, has fallen below prepandemic levels, the recent flurry of lease signings in Chicago hasn't made much of a dent in the Magnificent Mile's vacancy rate.

That is in part because some retailers are replacing departing tenants. Others, such as H&M and the North Face, have announced moves within the corridor to better-located but smaller storefronts.

The future of the Magnificent Mile's two urban malls is also unclear. The former owners of the two struggling properties, Water Tower Place and the Shops at North Bridge, handed them back to their lenders in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Pacific Life, which owns the Shops at North Bridge, plans to begin renovating the mall next year, a representative said.

Meanwhile, the Mag Mile is contending with a wave of new "massive, multilevel" retail space that developers added in past years, said real-estate firm Newmark's Keely Polczynski.

"The rents had gotten so high, so frothy," she said. "That supply didn't match up with demand."

Much of that new retail space, particularly on upper floors, will likely struggle to attract tenants because shoppers tend to stick closer to the ground floor.

Still, Polczynski said the shopping corridor is turning a corner. Her firm is marketing two retail properties for sale, both fully leased with national tenants.

Write to Kate King at kate.king@wsj.com and Joe Barrett at Joseph.Barrett@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2025 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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