Circle Centre Mall

Total retail floor area729,981 square feet (67,817.5 m²)^[1]No. of floors4ParkingMetered street parking, parking garages (2 underground, 1 aboveground)Public transit access Julia M. Carson Transit Center (1,100 feet (335 m) east)Websitewww.circlecentre.com

With the closure of Nordstrom in 2011 and that of Carson's on April 29, 2018,[2] the mall has no department stores. In response to the changing retail conditions, the mall has looked to non-traditional mall usages; in 2014, for example, The Indianapolis Star moved its offices into part of the space vacated by Nordstrom.

Location and layout

Circle Centre covers approximately two square blocks in

The mall covers 7.2 acres (2.9 ha), with a parking garage on the opposite side of Illinois Street covering 2.0 acres (0.81 ha) and connected by a sky bridge. Two underground parking garages underlay the mall itself. The mall contains 960,000 square feet (89,000 m²) of space, of which 793,700 square feet (73,740 m²) is leasable.[3]

Circle Center was laid out in a "dumbbell" shape, with the two anchor stores at each end connected by a skylighted spine lined with stores. The ground level is split by Maryland Street, but the second, third, and fourth levels are joined by a wide sky bridge. On the first level, the anchors and a number of restaurants have entrances directly from the street. The fourth level contains the movie theater and other entertainment venues, but no other retailers.^[3]

The mall is connected on the south, west, and northwest to the Indianapolis skywalk network, connecting it directly to the

During the 1960s and 1970s, the downtown retail sector in Indianapolis was in decline as suburban shopping centers were opening. Vacancy rates were increasing and the physical environment was deteriorating. The lack of restaurants and other attractions led to fewer people coming downtown during the evening and on weekends.

In 1983, the city began purchasing the needed property. The Occidental Building at the southeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets, which was the home of the L. Strauss & Co. clothing store, was bought for $2.8 million. Strauss moved to the new Claypool Courts at the northwest corner of the same intersection, but went out of business before the mall itself was completed.^[6] Purchase of the other needed parcels was completed by 1989.^[7]

By the end of 1990, most of the demolition of existing structures had been completed. However, Simon & Associates failed to meet a December 1 deadline to sign a permanent agreement because they had not been able to complete financing for the mall. Nevertheless, the city went ahead and awarded contracts for excavation of the underground garages and for retaining walls around the perimeter of the site.[6]

On September 17, 1991, a new plan and model for the mall, including what would become the Artsgarden, were presented. Eight days later, the city signed an agreement with Circle Centre Development Company, a consortium of twelve local companies, to provide $100 million in financing by March 1, 1992. A subsidiary of Simon & Associates served as the general partner. Delays in finalizing the financing subsequently led Mayor Stephen Goldsmith to declare a moratorium on further city participation. As a result of these problems, large portions of the mall site consisted of deep holes in the ground for over a year.^[6]

The original $100 million projected costs of the mall had risen as the scope changed and the timeline for completion of the mall grew. By March 1983 it was $125 million, growing to $400 million in December 1986 when 1 1/2 blocks were added to the project. It continued rising to $500 million in October 1987, $560 million in January 1988, and $650 million in March 1988. By June 1991 the projected cost had increased to $1 billion, but in that month it decreased to between $500 million and $750 million. However, by November 1994, about a year before the grand opening, the cost was expected to be only $325 million.^[6]

Circle Centre officially opened on September 8, 1995, at a total cost of $307.5 million (not including the $12 million for the Artsgarden). Of that total, $55.0 million was for site acquisition, $10.3 million for site improvement, $62.2 million for mall construction, $27.4 million for a parking structure, $124.0 million for tenant improvements, and $28.6 million for soft costs. The financing consisted of $187 million by the City of Indianapolis (including federal grants), $75 million by the equity partners (Circle Centre Development Partners), and $45 million from construction loans.^[3]

Renovation

In February 2018, the Simon Property Group announced a multimillion-dollar renovation for Circle Centre, its largest ever, that would be worked on over the next two years. The project includes improvements to bathrooms, flooring, lighting, elevators, and entrances. The third-floor food court will have new lounge areas, banquette seating, and community tables to attract more restaurant patrons. When asked about the outlook for Circle Centre in view of the loss of its remaining anchor store and of smaller retailers, the mall's general manager said that she envisioned the mall becoming a hybrid of traditional and non-traditional retail. In 2015, a proposal had been put forth to add residential units, but that is not part of the current project. The project also does not address what would be done with the space occupied by Carson's.^[8]

On April 1, 2021, day-to-day management of the mall was taken over by JLL.^[9] Simon continued to handle leasing, until they sold their remaining stake in December 2021 to the Circle Centre Development Company.^[10] In December 2023, the Circle Centre Development Company announced that it had reached an agreement to sell the mall to Hendricks Commercial Properties. Hendricks had previously redeveloped the other public spaces in Indiana plans to spend about $600 million over the next ten years to redevelop the mall into an “open air, pedestrian-focused campus with housing, offices and shopping”.^[11]

Historic preservation

Since some of the costs of the mall were paid by federal funding, a survey of the buildings in the redevelopment area was conducted as to their historical importance under

Of the 43 buildings surveyed, it was decided that 17 would be retained, 8 would have only their facades preserved, and 18 would be demolished. Fourteen of the buildings to be demolished were contributing structures in the Wholesale District, a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The facades of seven buildings were subsequently incorporated into the exterior of the mall.^[13][6]

Of the seven historic facades that were preserved, only two were used in place. The others were moved as much as two blocks from their original locations. The cast-iron facade of the Vajen Exchange Block Building, which had been preserved by the

In the original concept, the mall would have connected the existing downtown locations of the L. S. Ayres and the William H. Block department stores and added one or more department stores that did not then have locations in Indianapolis. In January 1988, Saks Fifth Avenue announced that it would build a new 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m²) store on the northeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets. However, in July 1990, amid a financial downturn, the new owners of Saks stated that no new stores, including the proposed Indianapolis one, would be built during the new three years.^[6]

In April 1989, Nordstrom announced that it would become Circle Centre's fourth anchor store. Initial plans had been to locate the fourth anchor in the Occidental Building at the southeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets. Nordstrom proposed a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m²) three-story structure, which was larger than the planned site could accommodate, so Nordstrom was located in a new building on Meridian Street between Georgia and Maryland streets.^[6]

Block's department store changed its name to

In July 2011, Nordstrom closed its Circle Centre store due to decreased sales as many of its customers began shopping at its newer store in The Fashion Mall at Keystone, which had opened in 2008.^[14] The mall was unable to attract another anchor store for the location after three years of effort, so an agreement was reached with The Indianapolis Star to move its newspaper offices into 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) of the upper levels of the former Nordstrom space. The move was completed on September 29, 2014.^[15]

In 2007, the name of the Parisian store was changed to Carson Pirie Scott after having been sold to

When Circle Centre opened in September 1995, it had two anchor stores—Nordstrom, with 206,000 square feet (19,100 m²), and Parisian, with 144,000 square feet (13,400 m²)—and 88 other stores with a total of 418,000 square feet (38,800 m²). Of those 88, 22 were restaurants and food service, 30 were clothing and shoe stores, and 7 were recreational (including movie theaters).[3]

As of February 2018^[update], there were 90 stores besides the Carson's anchor. Of those, 26 were restaurants, 58 were retail stores, and 6 were entertainment venues.^[17] In addition, substantial amounts of space are now used by non-retail establishments: The Indianapolis Star uses 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) of the former Nordstrom space,^[15] and Brown Mackie College, which moved-in in 2011, takes up about 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) on the fourth level;^[18] however, in 2016 the school announced that it would not accept any new students as it shuts down its operations.^[19] The Simon Youth Academy, an Indianapolis Public Schools Choice School for 11th and 12th graders that opened in 2015, also occupies about 5,000 square feet (460 m²) on the fourth floor.^[20]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Circle Centre.

• Official website