a children's play place was added at center court. Despite these additions, the mall faced competition against Geneva Commons, a lifestyle center which opened in nearby Geneva, Illinois in 2002. Wilmorite sold most of its shopping malls to Macerich in December 2004 in order to put a greater focus on properties in the Rochester, New York area. Of the fifteen malls owned by Wilmorite at the time, neither Charlestowne Mall nor Westshore Mall (now The Shops at Westshore) in Holland, Michigan was included in the sale. At the time of the sale, Charlestowne Mall had an occupancy rate of about 88 percent. Sue Klinkhamer, then the mayor of St. Charles, told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald at the time of the sale that she thought that Wilmorite did not market the mall successfully, due to its distance from the company's headquarters in New York state. By 2006, the mall was described by the same publication as having "more than a third" of its stores empty. Among the closures were Sam Goody and Casual Corner, both of which went out of business entirely, and Lane Bryant, which was one of several stores to relocate to Geneva Commons. John Melaniphy of the Chicago-based retail analyst firm Melaniphy and Associates Inc., also attributed the mall's decline to it being too big for the market, its distance from major freeways in the area, and increased competition from big-box stores that had opened throughout St. Charles in the interim. Despite its decline, the mall was sold in 2005 to Midland Loan Services, which hired Urban Retail Properties to manage the property. In addition, Von Maur extended its lease. Urban Retail sold management rights to McKinley Properties in August 2007. McKinley executives began considering redevelopment plans by year's end; one such plan was to convert the property to a lifestyle center format akin to that of Geneva Commons. No further change was made on the mall property under McKinley's ownership, thus creating a further decline in tenancy. By June 2010, the Kane County Chronicle reported that the mall had "slightly more than two dozen" stores. That same month, a California-based investment group operating under the name Charlestowne Investments LLC acquired the mall with plans to revitalize it. After over a year, there had been no indications of communication between mall ownership and the city in terms of beginning construction for these projects, On January 4, 2011,