Lafayette Street / US 27 & 33 and South Anthony Boulevard
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne's first fully-enclosed shopping facility, GLENBROOK CENTER, opened for business in October 1966. Indianapolis' Melvin Simon & Associates (the forerunner of today's Simon Property Group) developed the area's second shopping mall, which was built on an 86-acre site, located 4.3 miles south of the center city and 6.7 miles south of GLENBROOK CENTER.
One of the first operational SOUTHTOWN MALL stores was a 1-level (104,500 square foot), Fort Wayne-based Wolf & Dessauer. Its official grand opening was held on March 10, 1969. A 1-level (131,900 square foot) Montgomery Ward opened its doors on April 10, 1969. A mall-wide dedication commenced on September 16 of the same year. At that time, there were thirty-six operational stores.
Charter inline tenants included Lane Bryant, Waldenbooks, Kinney Shoes, Patterson-Fletcher, Richman Brothers, Chess King, Hanover Shoes, Nobbson, Baber Jewelers, Karmelkorn, Docktor Pet Center, Walgreen Drug, Azar's Big Boy, So-Fro Fabrics, Spencer Gifts, Orange Julius, an MCL Cafeteria, (20,000 square foot) Maloney's Fine Food supermarket and (60,000 square foot) G.C. Murphy 5 & 10.
J.C. Penney's 2-level (180,800 square foot) mercantile welcomed its first shoppers on January 21, 1971. With its completion, SOUTHTOWN MALL covered approximately 747,800 leasable square feet and housed fifty-five stores and services.
Wolf & Dessauer was acquired by the Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayres chain in December 1969, with stores being rebranded under the Ayres nameplate in the spring of 1970. The General Cinema Corporation Southtown Cinema I & II showed its first features on June 30, 1971. The venue was converted to a triplex in 1982 and was permanently shuttered in 2001.
The reconfiguration of the cinema coincided with a major addition to the mall. G.C. Murphy was shuttered in late 1979. In the previous February, the city planning commission had begun reviewing plans for a Southwest Wing. This new shopping concourse was to extend through the G.C. Murphy space and extend to a newly-built Sears.
Wolf & Dessauer was acquired by the Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayres chain in December 1969, with stores being rebranded under the Ayres nameplate in the spring of 1970. The General Cinema Corporation Southtown Cinema I & II showed its first features on June 30, 1971. The venue was converted to a triplex in 1982 and was permanently shuttered in 2001.
The reconfiguration of the cinema coincided with a major addition to the mall. G.C. Murphy was shuttered in late 1979. In the previous February, the city planning commission had begun reviewing plans for a Southwest Wing. This new shopping concourse was to extend through the G.C. Murphy space and extend to a newly-built Sears.
Sears' 1-level (95,700 square foot) store was launched on July 10, 1982. Service Merchandise opened its doors on August 23, 1982. A "Grand Re-opening Celebration" was held on October 21st. The event was hosted by actor and TV host Gary Collins and his spouse, Mary Ann Mobley, "Miss America 1959."
New Southwest Wing stores included Jean Nicole, Maurices, Merry-Go-Round, Gordon's Jewelers and the 10-bay Patio Food Court. With the completion of the expansion, SOUTHTOWN MALL encompassed nearly 1 million leasable square feet and housed around 115 tenant spaces.
Unfortunately, the addition couldn't have been built as a worse time. International Harvester, a major employer for the region, eliminated 10,000 jobs during 1982, leaving the south side of the city, and SOUTHTOWN MALL, in dire straits. The new Southwest Wing would never be fully-leased.
The mall entered a downward spiral that it never escaped from. Montgomery Ward became the first anchor store to pull out, on April 15, 1983. Wisconsin-based Kohl's stepped in to fill 70,000 square feet of the abandoned Wards. Spiece, a sporting goods retailer, leased adjacent space. Spiece closed in 1992. After a 3-year vacancy, Kohl's opened a prototype Outlet Store in the old Spiece space. This operation was short-lived.
1997 was an especially brutal year for SOUTHTOWN. J.C. Penney shut down on June 28. L.S. Ayres, who had planned on closing their store in 1992, decided to continue on until the lease expired. The store went dark on July 31, 1997. MCL Cafeteria served its last meal in August. On March 6, 1999, Kohl's locked its doors, re-opening the following day in the newly-completed APPLE GLEN CROSSING {5.5 miles northwest, in Fort Wayne}. This left SOUTHTOWN MALL with just Sears, and a smattering of inline stores, in operation.
After considering various redevelopment scenarios, the Simon Property Group sold the moribund mall in July 1998; the buyer being North Carolina's Whichard Real Estate. Within 2 years, the company was $222,000 in arears for property taxes. The shopping complex was put on the auction block in March 1999. No one made a bid on the property. Its sale was confounded by revelations of asbestos in the older structures and eight underground storage tanks not in compliance with more recent federal standards.
It appeared that progress was being made in June 2000, when two local land developers made an offer to buy the mall for its delinquent taxes. However, this effort was stymied by years of litigation between the de facto proprietor of the property and the City of Fort Wayne.
Meanwhile, Sears was shuttered on January 26, 2002. The mall, itself, shut down on February 1, 2003. The city government condemned the property and took possession via eminent domain. A wrecking ball was brought in in August 2004, leaving only the former Penneys Auto Center standing (this would eventually be razed, as well).
The site was redeveloped with a 1-level (225,000 square foot) Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based Menards home improvement center and 1-level (217,000 square foot) Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Menards held its grand opening March 20, 2006, with Wal-Mart being dedicated on September 20th. The SHOPPES AT SOUTHTOWN, a small strip center, was also built. It included T-Mobile, Great Clips and Star Financial Bank.
Sources:
The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel
www.labelscar.com
www.cinematreasures.org
www.movie-theatre.org
www.cityoffortwayne.org
www.cinematreasures.org
www.movie-theatre.org
www.cityoffortwayne.org
"Southtown Mall" article on Wikipedia
FAIR USE OF SOUTHTOWN MALL IMAGE:
The image from Allen County Public Library Digital Collections illustrates a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The image is not replaceable with a free-use or public-domain image. The use of the image does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute the image in any way. The image is being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and its use is not believed to detract from the original image in any way.
