Like many eastside teenagers in the early 2000s, Lindsey Baker and her friends spent a lot of time at Washington Square Mall. Parents would drop them off and they’d spend hours there — buying caramel popcorn, window shopping and just hanging out.
As an adult, Baker would take her children to get pictures with the Easter Bunny and shop at Target. But things changed in the mid 2000s as stores started to shutter. Now, the parking lot is crumbling and storefronts remain vacant. Many residents have called the mall an eyesore.
Baker, who lives in Warren Township, believes the run down infrastructure has affected the rest of the neighborhood.
“I don’t know if it’s the perceived safety or the perception of just how nice the area is for why people are shopping in other areas instead,” Baker said. “But I’m a big fan of convenience, and I would much rather be on Washington Street than having to drive to Keystone, or God forbid Castleton.”
Washington Square isn’t the only one. Across the county, once thriving suburban malls are dying.
But there is some hope that vibrancy will be brought back to Washington Square, and even into the rest of the neighborhood.
As IndyGo continues construction of the Blue Line, new businesses have popped up near the mall. And an eastside councilor is working to revitalize the mall property.
But at 94-acres, finding a developer to purchase the large property might be difficult — and costly. Redevelopment could cost millions of dollars.
How we got here
Washington Square mall opened in 1974 on the east side of Indianapolis on East Washington Street. It quickly became a shopping destination. Development beyond the mall followed, too, with strip malls and dining popping up along East Washington Street.
But things changed in the mid 2000s. Big-name retailers like Macy’s and Sears, which once served as anchors for the property, closed. Other stores inside the mall, including a Foot Locker and Bath & Body Works, eventually left the property for a shopping center across the street. The Target has remained, but closed off mall access several years ago.
Despite the dilapidated parking lot, the mall remains open with about a dozen mostly small businesses.
While Washington Square still operates in some capacity, other Indianapolis malls haven’t been as lucky. On the west side, Lafayette Square mall closed several years ago. Downtown’s Circle Centre mall closed in 2025. There are plans to turn the downtown site into a mixed-use development called Traction Yards.
The decline of shopping malls started due to over retailing, said Michael Burayidi, a professor of urban planning at Ball State University.
“We simply built far too many malls than the population and consumer base can support,” Burayidi said.
Burayidi said shifts to online shopping, a declining middle class and millennials wanting to move closer to urban areas have also contributed to the decline of shopping malls.
The decline of malls can have an impact on neighborhoods nearby. Burayidi said properties that appear abandoned attract vandalism and are likely to increase crime rates.
“The neighborhood will become less desirable for people who want to buy houses or live in the area, and people might actually decide to leave the neighborhood because the mall is in such a blighted condition,” he said.
Dying malls have economic impacts, too. Property values close by tend to decrease. And businesses that relied on the mall’s foot traffic will often close due to a decline in customers.
The solution, Burayidi said, is reenvisioning what a property like Washington Square may look like, though that can be difficult. Malls have a large real estate footprint. And people aren’t shopping like they did 20 years ago.
“Retail can no longer be the anchor that brings people to the mall,” Burayidi said.
A vision plan
A new vision for Washington Square is exactly what City-County Councilor Michael-Paul Hart is pushing for.
Hart, a Republican who represents part of the east and south sides, has made reviving the area a priority since he won his seat in 2019.
“I look at the role of a city councilor as a problem solver,” Hart said. “You know it could be potholes, it could be parks, it could be dilapidated properties. In this case, certainly the mall. And so, how do we solve that problem?”
Some changes in the area are already in the works.
IndyGo’s third bus rapid transit line, the Blue Line, will run past the mall and is expected to be completed in 2028. That comes with improved infrastructure like better sidewalks and the potential for more foot traffic. And development along the Blue Line is already underway. National chains like Wawa and Dutch Bros have plans to build not far from Washington Square.
To kickstart potential redevelopment, Hart launched a predevelopment site study in February. The study was led by Schmidt Associates, an Indianapolis architecture firm, and privately funded by real estate group, Lauth Group. The study included a community survey, outreach meetings and interviews with current mall tenants. A concept plan was presented to community members in August.
The plan shows Washington Square repurposed as a mixed-use property with retail, dining and space for workforce development. The plan also includes greenspace, a sports complex and housing.
Hart said the tenants and community members he has spoken to are cautiously optimistic about the future development. And having retail space is important, he said. He doesn’t want to push out local businesses still operating in the mall.
“They’ve seen and heard it before,” Hart said. “They lost all the anchors going into 2019 and that’s when Durga, the current owners, bought it. It’s just gotten worse since then.”
When the plan was presented in August, Hart made it clear to residents that the plan was just an idea of what could come to the space.
Nearly 100 people attended the presentation, and many were open to the ideas presented.
But Hart said while developers have been interested in the property, it could be years before any redevelopment happens. And it could be costly — likely requiring a combination of private investment, grants, city-supported infrastructure funding and tax credits.
One source of funding Hart suggested would be to use the community impact payment the city would receive from tax abatements for a controversial proposed DC Blox data center in Hart’s district. A proposed tax incentive package for the data center campus has not been revealed, so it is unclear if the developer would receive a tax abatement and for how much. Other funding sources could be from grants for development in blighted or low-income communities.
Hart pointed to another property in his district that took years to redevelop, the former Ford-Visteon manufacturer site where the DC Blox data center will be built.
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The Georgia-based developer plans to build a data center campus near Irvington.
“I don’t want this to take 20 years,” Hart said. “And term limits are important because I won’t guarantee that I’m going to win again. And so what I’ve done is given myself at least a timeline to get a project together.”
By the end of 2027, Hart hopes for property owners to decide on a selling price.
Once owned by Simon Property Group, ownership of the mall has switched hands several times since 2014. Most of the mall property is now owned by Ohio-based company Durga Property Holdings LLC. Last year, Durga Property Holdings LLC announced the property is for sale.
When Hart announced the pre-development study in February, tensions rose when Washington Square property manager Keith Lee said Durga was not aware of the councilor’s plan. However, Lee was present at the vision plan unveiling and said Durga is open to selling to the right developer.
Mirror Indy was unable to reach the owner of Durga Property Holdings LLC or Lee.
Once the property owners agree on a price, Hart hopes to have a set of investors ready to make a deal and know exactly how the project will be funded.
“People can get out of contracts, but I think that gives us the next best steps,” Hart said. “That’s the best I can do.”
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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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