school sales. Sears advertised the store by mailing flyers to over 61,000 area residents who held Sears credit cards at the time. Carson's held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open its store, their 24th store in the Chicago area, on August 15, 1991. At the time, Carson's parent company Bergner's was undergoing financial restructuring following debt accrued in the acquisition of the Carson's chain in 1989; although this caused issues in delayed shipments to several Carson's and Bergner's stores, the Charlestowne Mall store was not affected. The rest of the mall opened in phases between 1991 and 1992, by which point Kohl's had been added as a fourth anchor store. Other features of the mall upon opening included a two-level carousel and a food court. Mid-late 1990s: After opening The opening of Charlestowne Mall had an immediate impact on St. Charles Mall, an existing shopping center in St. Charles. This mall was entirely vacated in 1995 after its anchor stores Kmart and Joseph Spiess Company had closed, and was demolished a year later. By comparison, businesses owners in downtown St. Charles stated that they did not consider the mall as competition as the downtown business district mostly consisted of businesses not typical of malls, such as antique shops. Residents of the Charlemagne subdivision just north of the mall submitted plans to the city of St. Charles to block a mall entrance that aligned with one of the streets in the subdivision, due to motorists using the main road through the subdivision as a shortcut to the mall. These plans were unsuccessful. In 1994, Wilmorite began negotiations with several chains to build a fifth anchor store on the northwest corner. Among the retailers considered were Jacobson's, Von Maur, Parisian, and Lord & Taylor. In addition, Carson's submitted plans to expand its store in order to include more departments not already present, such as housewares and men's shoes. Wilmorite also submitted plans to build a Toys "R" Us outside the mall. Nine business owners within the mall attempted to file a lawsuit against Wilmorite in 1997, claiming fraud and misrepresentation of contract. Among the businesses were a local clothing store called Kids Asylum and a cinnamon roll vendor called Cindy's Cinnamon Rolls, both of which had already closed at the time. Under this lawsuit, the former owners of these stores claimed that Wilmorite had promised "upscale" stores such as Crate & Barrel which