When Sharon Arnold’s family moved to the northeast Devington area in 1959, it was all farmland.
But soon after, Devington Plaza was built — one of Marion County’s first suburban shopping centers.
“I got to watch Devington come alive,” she said. “And it was something. People came from all over to go to that shopping center.”
As a kid, Arnold remembers going to the plaza for hamburgers and milkshakes after school. She said it also once was home to an Indy-famous Roselyn Bakery, a hardware store and several grocery stores.
Today the 36-acre plaza is run-down. Kroger left in 2018, and other businesses followed. Spaces remain vacant. The parking lot is cracked and floods when it rains.
Neighbors agree the shopping center at 46th Street and Arlington Avenue is in need of redevelopment. But they want to make sure the city gets the plans right.
New York-based Skysoar Capital Partners had plans to purchase the property and work with a local company to redevelop the plaza. Those plans included retail space and an apartment complex of more than 500 units. But area residents opposed the plans, largely over the apartments, saying they did not align with community needs.
In order for a redevelopment to proceed, the city would have to approve a zoning change. The Department of Metropolitan Development and Skysoar have been going over the plans for months, but have not reached an agreement. At last check in February, the developer had withdrawn its proposal.
Mirror Indy could not reach Skysoar for comment. The developer still has rights to the property but can’t file another petition to rezone under city rules for at least three months.
Community leaders took the withdrawal as a win. But the push to redevelop Devington Plaza remains.
Neighbors don’t want to ‘settle’
Local neighborhood leaders, in fact, hope to help direct how the plaza is redeveloped.
They created the Devington Redevelopment Task Force, which is made up of leaders from the neighborhoods surrounding the plaza. Those include Brendon Park, Brendonshire and Millersville. The task force has hosted town halls and surveyed residents.
“Devington Plaza has always been a community hub,” said Stephanie Marshall, chair of the task force. “It sits at the heart of so many things, including schools, that could really use this 30-plus-acre site as a way to fill some gaps.”
But she said the community has felt unheard — and uninvolved — in the process.
“I just don’t think we just settle for what people tell us what we should have or what we can afford,” Marshall said.
Marshall is also president of the Brendon Park Civic Association. She said it’s no secret the plaza has been neglected for a long time.
The task force has spoken to several developers and investors who are interested in transforming Devington Plaza while prioritizing community needs. The task force hopes future development includes a health and wellness complex, a grocery store, retail space and senior housing.
Marshall said residents aren’t necessarily opposed to housing, but think any should be built in a thoughtful way, such as opportunities for homeownership or space for the community’s aging population.
“We gotta start trying to figure out how to make all of this work for everybody while creating opportunities in a place we know has been blighted, forgotten about, overlooked and disinvested in for so long,” Marshall said.
Neighbors know it’s an eyesore
Devington resident Sampson Levingston calls the plaza an eyesore. He knows it needs to be redeveloped.
“I don’t want to downplay the severity of natural disasters,” Levingston said. “But it looks like a flood came through and we didn’t know how to rebuild it.”
The 29-year-old is known in Indianapolis for his walk and talk tours centered around the city’s Black history. He said what happened to Devington Plaza has happened to many shopping centers across the country. Residents moved out, and so too did the businesses.
But many people stayed in the neighborhood, including many Black families. Levingston’s grandmother has lived in Devington for decades.
He spoke at a Devington Task Force town hall in February.
“As neighborhoods get Blacker, they do get less love, less attention, less care,” Levingston said at the meeting. “And so you have to be so strong in your ask and unified in what you want to see your neighborhood improve. If you don’t, it will improve without you or get worse with you in it.”
Arnold said a lot has changed since her family moved to the area more than 65 years ago. Now a resident of nearby Brendonshire, Arnold is also a member of the task force.
“I’ve seen the highs and the lows of Devington, and it’s time for us to come back up,” Arnold said.
Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
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