Castleton Square facts for kids
Macy's at Castleton Square, November 2019.
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| Location | Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
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| Address | 6020 East 82nd Street |
| Opening date | September 13, 1972 |
| Developer | Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation and Homart Development Company |
| Management | Simon Property Group |
| Owner | Simon Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | 130+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 6 (5 open, 1 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 1,381,533 sq ft (128,348.6 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in Dick's Sporting Goods, J. C. Penney, and former Sears, 3 in Macy's) |
| Parking | surface parking |
| Public transit access |   19, 86 |
| Website | simon.com/mall/castleton-square |
Castleton Square is a large shopping mall in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It is located in the Castleton neighborhood. The mall opened in 1972. It was built by the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation and Homart Development Company. Today, Simon Property Group owns and manages it.
Castleton Square is the biggest mall in Indiana. It has been the largest since it first opened. When it first started, its main stores were J. C. Penney, Sears, Lazarus, and Woolworth. The mall grew in 1990 and 1998, adding more stores and a food court.
Today, the main stores at Castleton Square are AMC Castleton Square 14 (a movie theater), J. C. Penney, Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, and Von Maur. There is also one empty space where Sears used to be. Overall, Castleton Square has more than 130 stores, including popular ones like H&M and Forever 21.
Contents
History of Castleton Square
Building the Mall in the 1970s
In 1971, the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation teamed up with Homart Development Company. Homart was a company that built malls for the department store Sears. They started planning Castleton Square. The first ideas were for a Y-shaped mall with three main stores: Sears, J. C. Penney, and Rike's. Rike's was a department store from Ohio.
The mall was built on 82nd Street, near the Interstate 465 highway. This area was chosen because many new homes were being built there. Sears also saw that more people were moving to the northeast side of Indianapolis. This made it a good spot for a new store. The state even made 82nd Street wider to handle all the new cars.
Later in 1971, it was decided that Lazarus would be the third main store instead of Rike's. Lazarus was another department store. By 1972, other stores like a Kroger supermarket, an F. W. Woolworth Company (a dime store), and a movie theater were also planned. Other shops like Hickory Farms, Kinney Shoes, and Waldenbooks were also going to open.
Grand Opening and Early Years
When it opened, Castleton Square was the biggest mall in Indiana. Sears opened first in August 1972. A month later, Kroger and 20 other stores were open. The official opening was on September 13, 1972. The mayor of Indianapolis, Richard Lugar, helped cut the ribbon.
The mall had cool features like a 20-foot-wide fountain and fancy lights in the middle. It also had live tropical plants, benches, and skylights. There was parking for over 7,000 cars. By Christmas 1972, the mall had 59 stores. J. C. Penney opened in January 1973, and Woolworth opened in March.
The Lazarus store opened in August 1973. It was their first store in Indiana. It had three floors and a restaurant.
Changes in the 1980s
In 1976, a second movie theater was built in the parking lot. Kroger moved out of the mall in 1979 to a bigger store nearby. Its old space was divided into smaller shops. Woolworth closed in 1982 because it wasn't making enough money.
In 1983, the mall got a big makeover. The fountain was removed to make space for a stage. They also added new lights and benches. Kohl's opened a new department store in the old Woolworth space. This was one of the first Kohl's stores in Indianapolis.
Growth in the 1990s
Two more main stores joined the mall in 1990. First, L. S. Ayres opened a large store on the south side of the mall. This store was built to attract shoppers from cities like Anderson and Muncie.
Two months later, a Montgomery Ward department store opened. This was Montgomery Ward's first store built inside an Indianapolis mall.
In 1997, Kohl's moved out of the mall to a bigger store in a different neighborhood. Simon Property Group, which now owned the mall, announced big plans. They would tear down the old Kohl's store. In its place, they would build a new section with a food court and a Galyan's sporting goods store. They also planned to update the mall's entrances, skylights, and restrooms.
Later that year, Montgomery Ward announced it would close its store at Castleton Square. Von Maur bought the space and opened its store in June 1998. Galyan's also opened in mid-1998. By the end of the year, the new food court was open. It had 15 restaurants and a children's play area.
Castleton Square in the 21st Century
In 2003, Lazarus stores became Lazarus-Macy's. This was to help the Macy's name become more well-known. The same year, the Galyan's store got bigger. A year later, Galyan's was sold to Dick's Sporting Goods.
In 2006, the Lazarus-Macy's store became just Macy's. The L. S. Ayres store closed in mid-2006. A year later, the L. S. Ayres building was torn down. A new outdoor area was built there. It included an AMC Theatres movie theater, Johnny Rockets, and H&M. After Borders Books & Music closed in 2011, its space became a Forever 21 clothing store.
On May 31, 2018, it was announced that the two-story Sears store would close. It closed in September 2018. At that time, it was the last Sears store in Indianapolis.
Macy's also announced plans to update its Castleton Square store in 2018. These updates included new lights, fitting rooms, and places to pick up online orders. As of 2019, Castleton Square is still the largest mall in Indiana, with over 130 stores.
See also
In Spanish: Castleton Square para niños
