Six years ago, Carson Pirie Scott left Randhurst Village, leaving a huge retail void at the Mount Prospect shopping center.

On Saturday, shoppers once again enjoyed browsing department store shelves, racks and displays filled with clothing, perfume, shoes, handbags and more, as Macy’s celebrated its grand opening at Randhurst.

The opening is part of a mounting a comeback for the onetime anchor space at the shopping center. Macy’s will occupy 37,649 square feet of the former Carson’s first floor. The other 24,000 square feet has been occupied since 2022 by the home decor brand HomeGoods.

The Randhurst Macy’s is one of the chain’s new small-format stores, taking up roughly one-fifth the size of the full-size stores.

Mount Prospect Mayor Paul Hoefert called it a “red-letter day” for the village and Randhurst Village.

“Randhurst Village, as we like to say, is a crown jewel in our community and (Macy’s is) a 20-carat diamond in that crown,” he said.

On Saturday, a long line of customers who had reserved spots online to be among the first inside awaited the store’s opening. Store Manager Jenna Pardini said more than 1,700 shoppers RSVP’d.

The crowd included former Carson’s shoppers like Michael and Linnea Sullivan of Arlington Heights.

“I grew up in Mount Prospect back when Randhurst was still an indoor mall,” Michael Sullivan said. “We lost Carson’s, so we’ve just been waiting for some sort of big clothing store to come in and try and take that place.”

The opening of Macy’s marks a significant milestone in Randhurst owner DLC Management Corp.’s effort to attract new tenants. The company has filled more than 100,000 square feet at the center this year, adding Planet Fitness, Hong Dae Korean Bar & Grill, Meat Moot, Altea Vietnamese Coffee & Boba, and Waxing the City.

“It’s the icing on the cake,” said Michael St. John, senior vice president of DLC Management Corp. “This really just helps cement that rebirth of the shopping center.”