Indian Mall was an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located at the intersection of Highland Drive and Caraway Road in

Jonesboro, Arkansas Jonesboro is a city located on Crowley's Ridge in the northeastern corner of the U.S. State of Arkansas. Jonesboro is one of two county seats of Craighead County. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 78,576 and is the f ...

. The location was close in proximity to the junction of

Interstate 555 Interstate 555 (I-555) is an Interstate Highway that connects Turrell, Arkansas, at I-55 to Jonesboro at Highway 91 (AR 91). Formerly known as U.S. Highway 63 (US 63), the highway was upgraded in the early 21st cent ...

and

Arkansas Highway 1 Highway 1 (AR 1, Ark. 1, and Hwy. 1) is a north–south state highway in east Arkansas. The route of runs from US Route 278 (US 278) in McGehee north to Supplemental Route BB at the Missouri state line. One of the origina ...

. For more than thirty years, Indian Mall was the only shopping center serving Northeast Arkansas. The nearby opening of

The Mall at Turtle Creek The Mall at Turtle Creek is an enclosed shopping mall in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that closed in 2020 due to tornado damage. Currently, the only stores in operation at the property are JCPenney, Dillard's and Target Corporation, Target. All four bu ...

in 2006 drew many tenants away from Indian Mall, including the Dillard's and

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

anchors. Indian Mall then became a dead mall, losing all of its tenants except for

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, an insurance office and a GameStop which remained for nearly two years. As of February 2008, the mall has been closed off except for Sears, and was demolished for a

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...

in 2012. The Dillard's Clearance Center and Sears has closed.

Mall development

Indian Mall opened in 1968Belz Burrow, Hocker Announce New Mall for Jonesboro
Lance Turner, Arkansas Business March 18, 2004 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). Indian Mall derived its name from the name of nearby

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osa ...

's mascot.Developers vie for new mall in Jonesboro
George Waldon, Arkansas Business, November 3, 2003 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 TG&Y was a five and dime, or chain of variety stores and larger discount stores in the United States. At its peak, there were more than 900 stores in 29 states. Starting out during the Great Depression in rural areas and eventually moving into citi ...

, and a supermarket called Stimson's. The mall sustained heavy damage during a series of tornadoes that struck the city on May 27, 1973.

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 as well as fundraisers for different organizations across the state and country. 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. Until 2006, Indian Mall was the only mall serving northeastern Arkansas. It featured a variety of national chain tenants, including

The Gap The Gap may refer to: Places Australia * The Gap, New South Wales, a locality near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales * The Gap, Northern Territory, a suburb of Alice Springs, Northern Territory * The Gap, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland ...

Waldenbooks Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain, from 1995 as a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a ...

Sam Goody Sam Goody was a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and United Kingdom, operated by The Musicland Group, Inc. It was purchased by Best Buy in 2000, sold to Sun Capital Partners in 2003, and filed for bankruptcy in 2006, clo ...

, KB Toys, and

Dollar Tree Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a ''Fortune'' 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its ...

New mall proposals

As early as 1994, rumors circulated on the arrival of a newer, larger mall to serve the expanding city. 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 Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, f ...

; 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. Due to a variety of issues, Warmack's Southern Hills Mall never materialized. However,

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). 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.

Closure and redevelopment

In August 2007, MBC Holdings entered into talks with the Warmack Company to purchase the Indian Mall.MBC Holdings Considering Purchase of Indian Mall
/ref> MBC Holdings plans on destructing most of the site and then developing it into additional retail space.Deal Signed to Sell Indian Mall
/ref> 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. MBC Holdings LLC closed on the property in late 2007. The mall closed February 2008, and was demolished in March 2012. In June 2013, a request was approved to tear down the mall and replace it with a

store. On December 28, 2016, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 30 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2017. The auto center closed on October 14, 2017.

References

{{Shopping malls in Arkansas Buildings and structures in Jonesboro, Arkansas Shopping malls in Arkansas Shopping malls established in 1968 Shopping malls disestablished in 2008 Defunct shopping malls in the United States Demolished shopping malls in the United States 2008 disestablishments in Arkansas Buildings and structures demolished in 2012 1968 establishments in Arkansas Demolished buildings and structures in Arkansas