More than half of Water Tower Place mall could ditch retail: The archetypal high-rise mall has suffered in the 2020s, and now the owner is open to uses other than retail on the top five of its eight stories.

While moving retail out of more than half the 818,000-square-foot retail portion of Water Tower Place would be a tectonic shift at Chicago's original high-rise mall, which opened in 1975, it's certainly not a surprise. Five of the eight retail floors at Water Tower Place may be put to other uses, a clear sign of the fadeout at the archetypal high-rise mall that launched a transformation of North Michigan Avenue half a century ago. [Extracted from the article]