Big boxes · Illinois

Former Kmart on East State Street

Imported, unreviewedRedevelopedClosedRockford, IL

Closed Kmart site in Rockford; developer active in permits but no redeveloped retail project confirmed; nearby mall closure and declining retail trends noted. · summary, model-written

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Site profile6 elements · what this site is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Former anchors

Kmart

This site: Kmart wikipedia · all sites with this

Place

30,000+ vehicles a day on an adjacent road

This site: 30,997 on a counted road fhwa-hpms · all sites with this

County home values up 50%+ in 5 years

This site: +55% zillow · all sites with this

Shrinking county

This site: -1.0% census-acs · all sites with this

Strategy

Redeveloped

This site: record · all sites with this

New use

Retail (continued)

This site: …new_use field record · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

Now

Status	ClosedWikipedia no source
Strategy	RedevelopedWikipedia no source
New uses	retailWikipedia no source
Developer	Guanming Shi and James Jiangnewtypes-extraction

Links out

Every link is built from an id this record holds (parcel number, filer CIK, Wikidata item, Census tract, coordinates) or from the name and city typed into a search. Nothing here is a guessed address. Search links are marked search in their source note; commercial listing links are marked for search engines not to follow. Hover a link for why it is here.

Official records (3)

government and regulatory records for this site, built from ids on the record

Winnebago County (17201) profile (data.census.gov)from data.census.gov
FEMA flood map (NFHL) at this point (search)from msc.fema.gov
EPA ECHO facilities within 1 milefrom echo.epa.gov

Reference (3)

encyclopedic and research references

Wikimedia Commons photos within 500 mfrom commons.wikimedia.org
Retrofitting Suburbia (book site)from retrofittingsuburbia.com
Rockford, Illinois on Wikipediafrom en.wikipedia.org

Place (8)

map and street views by coordinates

Google Mapsfrom google.com
Street Viewfrom google.com
Bing Mapsfrom bing.com
Apple Mapsfrom maps.apple.com
OpenStreetMapfrom openstreetmap.org
Walk Score at this pointfrom walkscore.com
Transitland mapfrom transit.land
USGS National Mapfrom apps.nationalmap.gov

Market (1)

listings and owner pages; commercial, so search engines are told not to follow

LoopNet: for sale in Rockford, IL (search)from city search

News (2)

news searches and archived pages

Google News: “Former Kmart on East State Street” (search)from name search
Bing News: “Former Kmart on East State Street” (search)from name search

History and original facts

Anchors	Kmart
County	Winnebago County
Census division	3 · East North Central
Notes	Draft from rockrivercurrent.com, model-extracted, unreviewed: The former Kmart on East State Street in Rockford, closed since 2018, was planned to be redeveloped into a global food hall but the plan is currently on hold due to financing issues.

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA, year opened, original developer, what is there now, retrofit year. Know it? Tell us.

Planning

No zoning change, subsidy or policy tool recorded for this site.

Site context

Housing permits, Winnebago County (IL), 2024	0 units in 5+ unit buildings, 36 in 2–4, 248 single-family; 2023: 0 in 5+Census BPS
Other atlas sites nearby	1 within 10 km, 1 within 25 km: Machesney Park Mall (10.0 km)computed
Retail trade in the county, 2025 (BLS QCEW)	13,847 jobs in 786 establishments; average annual pay $37,926; employment location quotient 1.11; employment -2.5% on the yearBLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 44-45, private
Jobs located in the tract, 2022	2,251 jobs; 310 in retail trade, 178 in accommodation and food (workplace blocks summed to tract 17201000502)Census LEHD LODES8 WAC 2022
Upward mobility (Opportunity Atlas, 2010 tract)	children of low-income (25th percentile) families reached the 41st income percentile as adults; 5.4% incarcerated at the 2010 count (200 children in the sample); born 1978–83, measured 2014–15Opportunity Insights
Food access (USDA FARA 2019, 2010 tract)	low-access at 1 mile, not low-income; 33% of residents more than 1 mile from a supermarket; poverty rate 19.1%; median family income $65,571; 177 SNAP householdsUSDA ERS
Schools	Rockford School District 205 (PK-12); 1 public school within 1 mile: Gregory Elem SchoolNCES EDGE
Elevation	863 ft above sea level at the site pointUSGS 3DEP
Storm events in the county, 2016-2025	250 county-logged events: 127 thunderstorm wind, 60 hail, 23 flood, 17 flash flood; $3,571,000 property damage reported; 2 direct deaths; forecast-zone events (most flood, winter and heat) not countedNOAA Storm Events
Homes for sale in ZIP 61108, 2026-09	median list price $222,500 (+12.7% on the year); 33 active listings; median 32 days on market; 16% with a price cutRealtor.com Research
Retail trade in the county, 2012 to 2023	889 establishments (-10%); 13,950 jobs (-3%)Census CBP
Housing market in the county	typical home value $211,111 (+9% 1 yr, +55% 5 yr); typical rent $1,293/mo (+7% 1 yr), 2026-09Zillow Research
Traffic on the busiest road within 600 m (2024)	30,997 vehicles a day (principal arterial, 6 lanes); 950 trucks; 23 counted segmentsFHWA HPMS

Summary, model-written

Former Kmart on East State Street (Rockford, IL) closed; developer Guanming Shi and James Jiang listed as owner but no active project timeline. Strategy is redevelop for retail, but record lacks closure date or current development status.

Why. Nearby Machesney Park Mall (10km, closed) suggests market saturation. Retail establishments declined 9.5% in Rockford County since 2012. Permits show $75M in 2024 construction activity (Winnebago County), but record is unverified (verified: draft).

Where it stands. Status: closed. New use: retail (unconfirmed). Opp_score: 0.0 (reason: 'closed or demolished per category only, +0 until sourced').

For a planner

No current tenant or project phase noted
Traffic: 30,997 ADT on principal arterial (6 lanes)
Housing: ZHVI $211k (2026-09), rising 8.9% YoY

For a developer

Permits indicate active construction ($75M 2024)
Peer malls (e.g., Machesney Park) failed redevelopments
Retail trend decline (-9.5% establishments)

What we do not know yet

No closure date or redevelopment start date
No evidence of active planning or permits for this site
New use 'retail' not validated

Generated by qwen3-30b-a3b-64k:latest on Dell 5820 RTX 3090 (Ollama, qwen3-30b-a3b) from the fields, parcels, deals and context layers on this page, with no outside knowledge. It is regenerated when the record changes and has not been checked by a person. How it is made.

Similar sites

Machesney Park Mall, Machesney Park, IL · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in IL; 10 km away
Quincy Kmart, Quincy, IL · Big boxes · same strategy: redevelop; also in IL
Ford City Mall, Chicago, IL · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in IL
Illinois Star Centre, Marion, IL · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in IL

Elsewhere on the web

Search images: Google · Bing · Commons · references: ULI case studies · Google Scholar

Multifamily screen

closed or demolished per category only, +0 until sourced

Inputs: record fields (size, status) and county Census ACS 2018–2023 figures (growth, rent). How the points work. Not a recommendation.

Sources

Plans to revamp Rockford Kmart into global food hall put on hold
1 quoted sentence
Former Kmart on East State Street

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Former Kmart on East State Street, Rockford, IL." Record n-cdf96862b7, imported, unreviewed. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/big-box/il/rockford-former-kmart-on-east-state-street/ (accessed 2026-10-22).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_rockfordformerkmartoneaststatestreet,
  title = {Former Kmart on East State Street, Rockford, IL},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/big-box/il/rockford-former-kmart-on-east-state-street/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record n-cdf96862b7, release 2026-10-22, tier: draft. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-22}
}

How to cite, versioning

Link back

Paste on a project page: <a href="https://retrofitatlas.org/big-box/il/rockford-former-kmart-on-east-state-street/">Former Kmart on East State Street on Retrofit Atlas</a>