The front and main entrance of Indian Mall |
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| Location | Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States |
|---|---|
| Opening date | May 1, 1968 |
| Developer | Warmack & Co. LLC |
| Management | Warmack & Co. LLC |
| Owner | Warmack & Co. LLC |
| No. of stores and services | 2 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 (2 open, 2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 385,641 ft.²[1] |
| Parking | 1,000 spaces |
| No. of floors | 1 |
Indian Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located at the Highland Drive-Caraway Road intersection in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It was located just north of the junction of U.S. Route 63 (future Interstate 555) and Arkansas Highway 1.
For more than thirty years, Indian Mall was the only shopping center serving its region. The nearby opening of The Mall at Turtle Creek in 2006 drew many tenants away from Indian Mall, including the Dillard's and JCPenney anchors. Indian Mall then became a dead mall, losing all of its tenants except for Sears, an insurance office and a GameStop which remained for close to two years. As of February 2008, the mall has been closed off except for Sears, and will be redeveloped.
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Indian Mall opened in either 1967[2] or 1968[3] as a shopping destination for Jonesboro and northeastern Arkansas. It was also the second mall in the state (the first being Phoenix Village Mall in Fort Smith).[4] Indian Mall derived its name from the name of nearby Arkansas State University's mascot.[5]
The mall first opened as a small shopping center with Blass (a chain owned by Dillard's; the store was later re-branded Dillard's), TG&Y, Sears, and a supermarket called Stimson's. J. C. Penney was added in 1976. TG&Y closed in the 1980s; Dillard's then moved its men's wear and home goods to the former TG&Y space. The supermarket space was converted to a food court in the 1980s as well.
Indian Mall was used to host various events including athletic team appearances and signings[6] as well as fundraisers for different organizations across the state and country.[7][8]
In 1998, shortly after the Westside Middle School massacre, Indian Mall received significant press coverage, as the location where Rev. Phillip McClure, a local pastor, started ministering to people.[9]
Until 2006, Indian Mall was the only mall serving northeastern Arkansas. It featured a variety of national chain tenants, including The Gap, Waldenbooks, Sam Goody, KB Toys, and Dollar Tree.[10]
As early as 1994, rumors circulated on the arrival of a newer, larger mall to serve the expanding city.[5] Two mall proposals eventually surfaced, one of the proposals being made by Indian Mall's owner, Warmack & Company. Warmack's proposal, dubbed Southern Hills Mall, was to feature a similar tenant roster to the Indian Mall. Southern Hills Mall was also slated to include newer, larger stores for JCPenney, Dillard's, and Sears, in addition to a new Target; the Indian Mall would then be converted to non-retail use under this plan. Meanwhile, David Hocker & Associates, a company based in Kentucky, was also proposing a new mall, called The Mall at Turtle Creek; this proposed mall was also to feature Dillard's among its anchors.[3]
Due to a variety of issues, Warmack's Southern Hills Mall never materialized. However, The Mall at Turtle Creek did open in 2006, including a new Dillard's and a new JCPenney among its anchors. As a result, JCPenney closed its store at Indian Mall, and the Dillard's at Indian Mall was converted to a clearance center (with the Dillard's Men's store closing entirely).[11] Similarly, many of the older mall's tenants re-located to the Mall at Turtle Creek. The site where Southern Hills Mall would have been built has since been put up for sale.[12]
In April 2006, Warmack and Company made the decision to cut jobs and eliminated all customer service representatives and the security department. Soon after the Champs store was victim to a looting. This was the only incident reported after the security department was laid off. The few remaining housekeepers took on security duties in securing the mall in the evenings.
In August 2007, MBC Holdings entered into talks with the Warmack Company to purchase the Indian Mall.[13] MBC Holdings plans on destructing most of the site and then developing it into additional retail space.[14] The deal is contingent on several areas. One is the city of Jonesboro's willingness to allow more retail development and plans for the stores that still occupy the Indian mall and have multi-year leases.[13][14]
MBC Holdings LLC closed on the property in late 2007. They will proceed with design plans to tear the existing structure down beginning in mid-2008. More than $50 million will be invested in the property, to redevelop it as The Shoppes at CaraLand. February 22, 2008 saw the closure of the mall itself, with only Sears and an insurance office remaining open.