Circle Centre Mall

Circle Centre covered approximately two square blocks in downtown Indianapolis, one block south of Monument Circle. It was bounded by Washington Street on the north, Meridian Street on the east, Georgia Street on the south, and Illinois Street on the west. Maryland Street splits the north block from the south block. ==Planning and construction==

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. Negotiations to purchase the real estate on the north side of Washington Street proved to be difficult. In particular, the Goodman family owned the Goodman Jewelers Building and several other buildings (including the Taylor Carpet Company Building and the Selig's Dry Goods Company Building) east of Illinois Street and, while the Goodmans wanted to be part of the mall, their valuation of their properties and their vision for the mall differed from those of the mall developers. As a result, the city decided to relocate the mall to the south side of Washington Street. 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. On April 1, 2021, day-to-day management of the mall was taken over by JLL. Simon continued to handle leasing, until they sold their remaining stake in December 2021 to the Circle Centre Development Company. 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”. The acquisition was completed on April 24, 2024. The mall closed permanently on December 31, 2025, to allow the redevelopment to begin. The first phase, which is targeted to open in 2029, will include of retail, dining, and entertainment; of office space, and more than 300 apartments, along with public plazas and green spaces. Restaurants and other businesses that face the streets will continue to operate during the redevelopment. The campus will be known as Traction Yards. ==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 Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The survey was conducted between 1987 and 1990. 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. The first floor of the L. S. Ayres main building was also historically restored rather than being stripped out as was initially proposed. ==Anchor stores==

at Georgia and Meridian streets in 2006 '' began leasing space in the former Nordstrom space in 2014 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 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. 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 of the upper levels of the former Nordstrom space. The move was completed on September 29, 2014. In 2007, the name of the Parisian store was changed to Carson Pirie Scott after having been sold to The Bon-Ton Stores in 2006; the name was later shortened to just Carson's. In December 2014, the city agreed to reduce the rent on the location by $300,000 annually through January 2018. On January 31, 2018, Bon-Ton announced that it would be closing the store (along with 46 of its other locations) in ten to twelve weeks, leaving the mall with no anchors. Carson's closed permanently at the end of the normal business hours on Sunday, April 29, 2018. ==Tenants==

When Circle Centre opened in September 1995, it had two anchor stores—Nordstrom, with , and Parisian, with —and 88 other stores with a total of . Of those 88, 22 were restaurants and food service, 30 were clothing and shoe stores, and 7 were recreational (including movie theaters). In addition, substantial amounts of space are now used by non-retail establishments: The Indianapolis Star uses of the former Nordstrom space, however, in 2016 the school announced that it would not accept any new students as it shut down its operations. The Simon Youth Academy, an Indianapolis Public Schools Choice School for 11th and 12th graders that opened in 2015, also occupies about on the fourth floor. ==See also==