Circle Centre Mall will be no more. Tenants are leaving by the end of the year, and construction is getting underway. What will come next?
Enter Traction Yards, the $600 million redevelopment Hendricks Commercial Properties will put in its place.
Nearly two years after the company Hendricks announced a complete rehaul of what is now Circle Centre Mall, the Wisconsin-based real estate developer said it would rebrand the site to pay homage to the city’s industrial and railway heritage.
In the two-block-long development, Hendricks plans to build an open-air shopping district elevated above the main street. Traction Yards will include 100,000-square-feet of office space, more than 300 apartments, 400,000-square-feet of retail and dining space and public green space. The first phase is scheduled to open by 2029.
Developers are still not sure whether a boutique hotel will be included, said Hendricks CEO Rob Gerbitz.
“We think we can, and we feel pretty good about it, but it could change,” Gerbitz said. If the hotel doesn’t pan out, the space will be turned into additional apartments.
While no specific tenants have been confirmed yet, Gerbitz said the leasing team is in conversations with several major tenants that do not currently have storefronts in Indianapolis.
Hendricks blocked off the south end of the mall to shoppers and pedestrians in April 2025 to do pre-construction work. In the months that followed, retail and food tenants slowly tricked out of the mall, until fewer than 10 remained. The holdouts eventually received lease terminations in November, IndyStar previously reported.
In 2026, Hendricks will start in earnest on Phase 1 of the redevelopment, meaning every tenant needs to vacate the mall by Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, the indoor shopping area and food court will be completely shut down, which Gerbitz described as “part of the process.” IndyStar is moving out of its newsroom located in the far south end of the mall.
However, external ground-floor tenants will remain open for business, he said.
Gerbitz said most of the construction work will be internal, and people won’t see much external work from the outside in the next year. During 2025, Hendricks focused on physically scanning the entire mall to figure out what would be possible to build.
“We can draw pretty pictures until we’re blue in the face, and suddenly you’re like, can you actually build this?” Gerbitz said.
Some longstanding parts of the mall will stay the same. The historic facades along Meridian Street will be preserved during the redevelopment along with the old L.S. Ayres storefront at the corner of Washington and Meridian Streets. Inside the former L.S. Ayres building, developers have uncovered historic architecture that they will incorporate into the new open-air mall, Gerbitz said.
The Indianapolis Artsgarden will also remain in its place above the intersection of Illinois and Washington Streets, despite some discussions earlier this year that the iconic structure could be demolished or moved.
Most of the skywalks should remain intact, except for the path above Georgia Street connecting the Omni Hotel to Circle Centre Mall, which will be demolished.
Alysa Guffey writes business, health and development stories for IndyStar. Have a story tip? Contact her at amguffey@usatodayco.com or on X: @AlysaGuffeyNews.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Traction Yards, $600M development, will replace Circle Centre Mall
Reporting by Alysa Guffey, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
