Back in July, word spread that a big piece of Muncie’s retail past was on the chopping block: the old J.C. Penney at Muncie Mall was headed for demolition. By September, the scope ballooned: nearly 255,000 square feet -including Sears and the long-shuttered cinema- were also slated to disappear! Fencing went up in October, then everything seemed to stall. What happened? At last, we have an answer.
For a long time, Muncie Mall was a bustling hub for shoppers from across East-Central Indiana and western Ohio. Built in May 1969 and opened the following year, the mall launched with a 129,000-square-foot Sears and a roster of forty-five stores1. Early anchors Britt’s2 and W.T. Grant3 soon came and went- both replaced in 1977, when L.S. Ayres4 and J.C. Penney5 stepped in and reshaped the mall’s lineup.
When I was a kid in the ’90s, Muncie Mall was still humming. Vacancies were rare, and the anchors -Sears, J.C. Penney, Elder-Beerman, and L.S. Ayres6– felt permanent. L.S. Ayres became Macy’s in 20067, and Elder-Beerman later rebranded as Carson’s, but at the time those shifts barely registered. The mall still felt like the beating heart of the region.
That’s no longer the case. The mall’s unraveling began in 2018, when Carson’s went dark after its parent company filed for bankruptcy8. The rest fell fast: Sears closed later that year9, Macy’s exited in early 202010, and J.C. Penney followed suit before the year was out11. In barely two and a half years, Muncie Mall lost every single anchor.
Fortunately, the mall’s new owner, Hull Property Group, has a plan- and it needs one. Muncie Mall’s website lists just nineteen stores and restaurants, but several are already gone. Still, Hull expects that tearing down JCPenney will make way for three new outparcel sites along McGalliard Road, including space for a 7,000-square-foot sit-down restaurant and a multi-tenant building12. Altogether, the plan identifies seven potential locations for new businesses, an ambitious bid to wake a property that’s been quiet far too long13.
Unfortunately, the project has hit a snag. Earlier this week, Muncie Redevelopment Commission director Jeff Howe explained to Woof Boom News that the plan has stalled for a surprisingly mundane reason: infrastructure. The former J.C. Penney serves as the mall’s “water hub,” while the old Sears functions as its “gas hub14.” Those utilities feed the rest of the complex through the vacant anchors, which creates a knotty logistical puzzle for demolition crews to untangle.
For now, the fences will stay up as the wrecking equipment stays parked. It’s a reminder that places like Muncie Mall are more than empty shells and that untangling its utilities will take time, planning, and patience. When demolition finally does begin, it won’t just mark the end of Sears and JCPenney- it’ll signal the start of a new chapter, built quite literally on the hidden infrastructure of the old one. As long as MCL stays open, I’ll be fine with whatever changes may come!
Sources Cited
1 Sears’ Huge New Store in Mall to Open (1970, August 5). The Muncie Star. p. 24.
2 Britts, New Department Store in Mall, Will Feature Grand Opening Thursday (1970, October 14). The Muncie Star. p. 13.
3 Nearly 2 1/2 Miles Of Counter in the New Grants (1970, September 9). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 32.
4 7-Year-Old Mall Dons New Colors (1977, April 21). The Muncie Star. p. 36.
5 New Penney’s Store Unveiled at Fashion Show (1977, January 16). The Muncie Star. p. 9.
6 Yencer, R. (1996, August 15). Bids opened for new mall road. The Muncie Star Press. p. 3.
7 McBride, M. (2005, July 30). Macy’s will take over L.S. Ayres in Muncie by fall ’06. The Muncie Star Press. p. 1.
8 Roysdon, K. (2018, April 21, 2018). Going-out-of-business sale begins at Carson’s. The Muncie Star Press. p. A2.
9Roysdon, K. (2018, June 1). Muncie Sears to close by September. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
10 Stefanski, C. (2020, January 8). Macy’s to close at Muncie Mall; clearance planned. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
11 JCPenney to close stores in Muncie, Defiance; Glenbrook spared (2020, June 5). WANE15 [Fort Wayne]. Web. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
12 Kramer, R. (2025, September 21). The Muncie Mall is about to change in a big way! Hull Property Group, a Georgia developer that owns 27 [Facebook]. Video.
13 (See footnote 10).
14 Muncie Mall Slow Deconstruction Reason? Jeff Howe Sheds Light (2025, January 28). Woof Boom Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved January 29, 2026.
Like many people my age, born in the 1950s I could not image the collapse and disappearance of Sears.
It was still a vibrant place even when I grew up!
This information, to me, demonstrates that the right, informed, experienced individuals are not properly involved in this process. Something as fundamental as the location of utilities gets over looked, really? That to me is a sign of the lack of the correct management / project engineers being involved. A sad sign of what has seemed to plague lots of attempts to reunite Muncie / Middletown USA. This is a failure of Project Management – again. I believe we have the right people here to assess and guide these projects, if they are properly selected and involved.
Sad to say, you make a great point. I agree 100%.
I would tend to agree, but the fact that they are being cautious to me says that the right people are involved. With a building that large, and especially one that is also more than half a century old, I imagine that pipes laid out on paper may not actually mirror what was built, especially if the mall was viewed as both invincible and immortal at the time.
Good point.
I wonder how many businesses had a space in the mall at its peak! Just 19 seems pitiful.
Want to say at least 45. I could find out. I tagged all of my Muncie Mall posts “Muncie Mall Saga.” I’m sure the original total is in the somewhere. Some were closed once the old Ayres wing was built around 1997.
These malls were the picture of modern retail to me in the 70s. The world keeps changing, though. Now you have me craving a Hot Sam’s pretzel and an Orange Julius! Those places seemed to inhabit every mall I was ever in.
Personally, it got me craving MCL. Today’s fried chicken day…