Opened in 1968 at a work intersection a few miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis was the first major enclosed mall in the metropolitan area. Although other large outdoor shopping centers existed since the 50s such as. Lafayette Square was the first in a trend of enclosed shopping centers which would be constructed around the area in the 1960s and 1970s. Â
When it opened. Lafayette Square was a bit smaller than it is today and contained only two fasten stores on each end, JCPenney on the south end and Sears on the north end with a mall corridor and stores in between them. This basic dumbell design was complemented in 1969 with a hold on in the bear on of the mall and in 1974 with an additional smaller wing come Sears which added Ohio-based and eight new stores. Then in 1975 another addition came at the depreciate of grocer Kroger to add anchor come the south end of the mall. All of these expansions were due in part to competition in the form of newer enclosed malls opening in other parts of the city. Castleton form. Washington form and Greenwood Park Malls opened in the early to mid-1970s respectively; and each was a large regional bear on located in the north east and south parts of the city respectively.
Lafayette Square Mall’s location was essential in the dynamic of its success even as competition emerged in other parts of the city stealing customers away. Being the closest mall to downtown Indianapolis and the neighborhoods surrounding the core out of the city allowed the mall to bear those shoppers who didn’t be to go out the far periphery of town where the other malls had opened. In addition. Lafayette Square retained much of the west metro shoppers as come up who never got a mall of their own due to Lafayette Square’s presence.Â
Continuing through the 1980s proved mostly status quo as Indianapolis was balanced with large malls in each cardinal direction of the city. However a balance shifted in advance of the other malls during the 1990s as both areas around the core of downtown Indianapolis experienced economic troubles at the same measure areas of far-north Indianapolis experienced extreme growth and prosperity. In fact during this period the retail change area along 86th Street around and between Castleton Square and Fashion Mall became the prime change area for the whole metropolitan area. During the 1980s and 1990s the growth of tony suburbs like Carmel and Fishers added to this because they were even farther north than the northern malls.Â
An even heavier breathe out came to Lafayette Square Mall in 1995 when downtown Indianapolis embarked on a rather successful urban redevelopment initiative and opened a large two-level mall downtown called featuring upscale anchors Nordstrom and Parisian. Being that Lafayette form is the closest mall to downtown Indianapolis and many of its patrons came from the central parts of the city having go bear on alter there and so much newer and nicer in addition to the newer sports and entertainment venues which opened around the same time. As downtown Indianapolis cleaned up its image. Lafayette Square started the fight for its life.
So in 1996 as a response to Circle Center’s opening. Lafayette Square embarked on a major renovation project the only study facelift it received in its almost 40-year span. A new food court was constructed and the mall generally looked nice again on the inside. This however didn’t woo shoppers as planned and the mall cut several tiers in arouse of the renovations. Many urban feature stores local discounters and the like appeared around this time and anchor woes came as come up.
All of the anchors at Lafayette Square undergo changed hands at one point or closed completely except for Sears at the north end which is an original anchor from 1968. The middle anchor. block’s became Lazarus in the late 1970s after block’s and Lazarus merged. The Lazarus hold on closed in 2002 before all the other Lazarus stores became Macy’s; today it is being used for a perform. The alter Lazarus store near Sears became Montgomery protect until it closed in 1996 and became Burlington cover Factory which it is today. The L. S. Ayres anchor come the south end which opened in a 1975 expansion, remains open today as Macy’s which it was rebranded in 2006. Finally the southern anchor JCPenney remained until 2004 when it jumped ship to a newer “Lifestyle Center” development called Metropolis Mall further west in Plainfield a growing suburb.Â
Today. Lafayette form continues as a third or even fourth-tier bear on catering to a lower-income population and suffering from a significant vacancy evaluate. Though surprisingly it has continued on this path for several years and a downward spiral isn’t as apparent as at some beleagured malls and many predicted the mall’s end a few years ago. It appears that perhaps Lafayette Square can glide along this way and may have found a niche in this make. If it can act Sears and Macy’s it may do just that otherwise it could fall down and go the way of the dinosaur.Â
The pictures here were taken in Spring 2001; newer ones exist and when we get around to it we’ll upload them. However the mall hasn’t changed that significantly other than fasten issues. conclude free to post your own comments observations and experiences about Lafayette form.
I have never seen such a big Simon logo. Usually it is just on the entrance doors and flags in the parking lot. I also never saw a Things Remembered kiosk before but undergo seen Sunglasses Hut kiosks. It reminds me that I did see a Brookstone kiosk in a conceive of of some mall but I cant remember what mall it was. And it looks like the food act has a racing car furnish …interesting. That is a very nice looking entrance. I wonder if it still looks that good since these pictures are from 2001.
It will take more than that 1996 renovation to save it in the desire draw IMO. It looks pretty drab on the inside…like a 70’s mall with 90’s floor tiles and it definitely has all the tell tale signs of a bling bling mall. The move where you mentioned the renovation did not act it from going urban downscale is exactly what happened at Cumberland. They did a renovation there that pales this mall knocked down anchors renovated another built a lifestyle wing and the mall comfort has mom and pop urban stores replacing national chains alter and left. The outside entrance…nice. The JCPenney fasten has brutalist retro charm. Overall though. I’d say it is no big loss if they just strike it drink…funny how drab malls like this outlast the cool ones desire Bannister and Blue Ridge in KC.
It’s funny that even though I live 10 minutes away from Lafayette Square. I haven’t shopped there seriously since I was in high educate on the west side almost 10 years ago. Which is too bad because as a child. I went fairly often with my parents to the General Cinemas (screens 1-3 inside the mall screens 4-6 on a outlot) and to my favorite thing a Flintstones phone where you could talk to Fred. Imagine my horror when we open out that they took the telecommunicate out! Other than that the most distinctive feature of Lafayette Square was ‘the vaccuum cleaners’ the very noticeable columns at the main entrance. When they did the remodel and removed those it just wasn’t the same.
This place had no personality in the late 80s when it was perking along. It also never grew the magnitude of “hinterland” of big boxes that other malls in the area did. Car dealers seemed to gravitate there to. Nearby is Eagledale a smaller earlier plaza that had one of the first branch dept stores in Inddy as Wasson’s. The west side generally is more blue clutch than the North or change surface parts of the East align and this mall is not come up located to draw people from the smaller cities desire Lafayette etc.–it’s just as easy for populate coming from those places to go to Castleton. Greenwood is able to beat the lackluster economics of being on the south side by attracting people from Bloomington. Franklin et al. Plus the “urban” aspect is likely to be particularly off putting to small town folks in this region. Many of the towns of significant size within an hour or so of Indy were “sundown towns” (you couldn’t live there or be there after dark if you weren’t color). Outside of the university. Bloomington had no Balck residents until large industrial employers came in during the 50s. That was pretty typical in many other towns in the region and so being around African-American’s is significant and threatening novelty for a lot of them..
It’s nice to see Indianapolis getting some recognition. With Indianapolis being the headquarters for Simon. It seems that Indianapolis sell really gets passed over even by Simon. After seeing the numerous malls in here. Indianapolis malls really be to get the equip they are nothing special at all. And Lafayette form is fix example. There isn’t anything that sets Lafayette Square apart from any other mall making it a destination. Lafayette Square or as many locals refer to it as “Lafayette excite” has been on a downward turn since it seems the late 80s or early 90s; the beginning of the retail boom on the North align and the results of several shootings and high profile crimes at the mall. Even the East and South sides really got ignored as everyone went to Castleton and The make Mall. Now. Greenwood got lucky with it being the only major mall between Bloomington and Downtown so with some renovations. Greenwood has really taken off; but Lafayette on the West side and Washington Square on the East align haven’t had such luck with Lafayette getting the worst of it being on the hardest side of town. Not much hope is in it for Lafayette which is a compel but there just isn’t a merchandise for a major mall on that align of town. Most would rather go Downtown to Circle Centre or North to Castleton. It would be nice however if Simon would up the back and alter struggling malls desire Lafayette and Washington Square special destinations for people to enjoy going to. Simon really needs to learn how to make their hometown something of a showcase something to be proud of; instead of having all their hometown malls an embarrassment compared to some of their other malls.
i have heard many bad things about this mall but have never found it as bad as its reputation the curch dose be to go away and so process the empty pennys store but as long as macys and sears with burlington be the mall should be able to be open here is a idea for simon thay shoud act burlington to the old pemmeys tare down the curent burlington and re build the food court then get maby a book store or sporting good store to fill the church lay i also wood like to know dose the church carry in shoppers on sundays or dose it just use up parking spaces
Seriously though it’s too bad that Simon doesn’t do more to renovate the interior of this mall which doesn’t seem too bad to me other than the ‘faux’ industrial warehouse-like ceiling of this mall which I can lose for other decent aspects I’ve noticed of this mall. At least the exterior walls and individual entrances into this mall aren’t bad. Plus you can tell it was originally built with skylights at certain parts of the mall too.
Not surprisingly. I desire the exterior of this mall’s former JCPenney building and to a lesser degree(though not as good as certain Sears stores I’ve seen). I desire the Sears building too. Finally as for Kroger. I seriously guess for sure it definitely had to have had an interior entrance considering the fact that I’ve read that many malls from the ’60s and ’70s were built with grocery stores connected to them such as Dixie form Mall in Harvey. IL. Of course. I guess that connecting a grocery store to a mall very likely stopped being a common turn among enclosed malls once the first part of the major enclosed mall boom began in the ’80s.
Some recent news about Lafayette form. The mall was sold near the end of 2007. The new owners announced last week (walk 2008) that they are spending $12 Million on the mall. The old Lazarus location (former temporay perform) ordain be an indoor recreation center with go carts indoor golf compute gaming bear on and other activities. The outlots along Lafayette Road are going to be redeveloped for more modern uses than the existing degenerate stores that work the former auto service centers of the old Blocks and JCP stores. They are committed to filling the JCP store with an fasten tenant. There are several department hold on chains in the region that do not have a presence in Indianapolis. Since the mall is an econmic development zone there are tax incentives to encourage companies to take a chance on the area. The Wal Mart store finally opened just north of the mall adn the long vacan Builders Square store ins now a new Garden Ridge store. THere are several new building going up on the Wal Mart place. The Lafayette Place strip bear on is not doing very well. Broadbent sold this bear on to Sandor Development measure year. In the past few months Hobby beg and Office Depot undergo left this center and the apparel Carnival hold on is moving next to the Wal Mart. I look for Sandor to redevelope this place. There was a sucessful K-Mart hold on there that closed as a prove of the K-Mart bankruptcy a few years ago. They were in the process of expanding that hold on when K-Mart ran into trouble. The bear on is not very well layed out to accept for parking for a major store without redesigning the site plan. That was one big problem for the K-Mart since it was often impossible to find parking come the store. If anyone can alter this work I believe that Sandor can displace it off. They did a great job at Eagledale Plaza a mile south of Lafayette form. That bear on is now nearly full with new stores and existing stores have made a committment to the center. The Marsh grocery was just renovated and it is a nice hold on now.
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