Last summer, we learned the old JCPenney at Muncie Mall was slated for demolition. By September, the plan ballooned to JCPenney, Sears, and an abandoned movie theater. Fencing went up, then progress seemed to freeze in place. Yesterday, shocking news spread across social media: the entire mall will be torn down! It’s the end of an era- one that, if I’m being honest, may have lingered longer than it ever should have.
I’ve probably written more about the fifty-six-year-old Muncie Mall than any sane person should. Originally, the shopping center featured W.T. Grant, Britt’s, Sears, and Ball Stores as its major anchors. By the time I was a teenager, it was home to JCPenney, Sears, Carson’s, and Macy’s. One by one, though, they vanished. An off-price outfit called Buyer’s Market moved into the Macy’s space in 2021, but for more than five years now, the mall has stood without a true anchor. With a 92% vacancy rate1, it’s long been the shell of a retail powerhouse.
Hull Property Group, which purchased the mall in 20242, seems to agree. In an Indiana Public Radio story published yesterday, Hull’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations, John Mulherin, said that “all we know is it’s not going to survive as it is. It has to be demolished completely3.”
Hull’s original plan, removing the 105,000 square foot JCPenney anchor block, would have created three outparcel spots, perhaps including a 7,000-square-foot sit-down restaurant and another three-tenant building4. After the removal of Sears and the old three-screen cinema, Hull identified a total of seven opportunities for new businesses5.
Unfortunately, things have changed. “I know for a fact there are three major retailers that are looking at the Muncie market,” Mulherin continued, “but they’re not coming to the mall. We’ve talked to them. They’re not coming to the mall in its current configuration6.”
According to a Hull Property Group presentation, the company will demolish 527,000 square feet of the mall -everything except Buyer’s Market, which is separately owned- and reconfigure the site to front McGalliard Road, Muncie’s primary commercial artery7.
Phase 1 of the company’s plan includes a fast-food outparcel near Panera, a family restaurant to the east that I hope becomes MCL, and two more fast-food restaurants facing Granville Avenue. It also includes a healthcare/mixed-use building on the site of the vacant Elder-Beerman store8.
Phase 2 would push development west with a new hotel and two additional retail stores. Phase 3 ups the ante: a national warehouse club with its own fuel center just north of the old JCPenney footprint! Over time, apartments are expected to join the mix to turn what was long a single-purpose place into somewhere people can shop, dine, and even live9.
While demolition on the vacant anchor stores may begin as early as March, the rest of the inline space will stay put until the last tenant leaves. According to Hull, that’s a process that could take six months to two years10. Here’s hoping that Books-A-Million sticks around nearby.
Nostalgia aside, Muncie Mall was designed for a different time. In 1970, most shopping took place indoors, big department stores pulled in regional crowds, and one enclosed building could function as the community’s primary retail hub. That world faded slowly, then all at once, but the mall lingered long after the model stopped working. The coming demolition may feel abrupt. In many ways, though, it simply acknowledges what should have been obvious for years.
What replaces it won’t look like the mall many of us remember, and it isn’t meant to. Instead of turning inward, Hull’s new plan opens the site to more relevant rhythms of daily life. The mall’s story may be ending, but the property isn’t disappearing; it’s being rewritten. Just like the generations who grew up walking its corridors, Muncie itself will move on to something new.
Sources Cited
1 Weichmann, S. (2026, February 26). IPR: Muncie Mall to be fully demolished. Indiana Public Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
2 Mulherin, J. (2024, January 31). Hull Property Group Acquires Muncie Mall. Hull Property Group [Augusta]. Press Release.
3 Weichmann, S. (2026, February 26). IPR: Muncie Mall to be fully demolished. Indiana Public Radio [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
4 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.
5 (See footnote 4).
6 (See footnote 2).
7 Redevelopment (2026, February 26). Hull Property Group [Augusta]. Presentation. Web. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
8 (See footnote 6).
9 (See footnote 2).
10 (See footnote 2).
It will be very interesting to see what actually happens! The thought of a warehouse store is nice. I wonder if anyone will ever revamp the strip mall across from Planet Fitness.
Here’s hoping! That strip mall really needs it.
I hope they can make it work. Muncie deserves some good news.
Agreed. I can’t see getting a Costco here, but that part of town remains a destination for everyone in the East-Central part of the state, along with West-Central Ohio. We’ll see what happens! I’ll continue to write about it, as I’ve scooped the Star Press on every post.
End of an era…sad to see it go! I feel like it is similar to the streaming debate currently creeping in. Everyone jumped to streaming because it was the “it” thing to do, and slowly the prices moved up making people ask why did we leave cable? Sometimes it is nice to have a one stop shop.
Good point! I agree. I’m not sure why people prefer outdoor power centers and strips to enclosed malls. I don’t necessarily.
All things must pass, and the Mall Era is for better or worse ending. News has been coming in this week that the Lloyd Center, Oregon’s first mall (1962) here in Portland will be demolished. It’s led an interesting life the last few years as the major tenants left and it got taken over by independent businesses enticed by cheap rent. But the land the mall is on is far too valuable for it to carry on in its current form, so it will be redeveloped. The biggest issue is what to do about its ice rink, that remains popular and also where Tanya Harding learned to skate. Many people want the rink to be saved/rebuilt when the area is redeveloped, but there is currently no plans to do so.
Wow, that does sound like a tough one! Whenever someone accomplished and renowned is connected to a place, there seems to be a case for keeping it standing. I hope it shakes out as well as possible for everyone!
For sure.
I wasn’t familiar with the Lloyd Center but I wikipedia’d it and, wow, what an interesting story. From the outside, it appears pretty modern aside from graffiti on the old Sears space. We have some malls in Indianapolis that are the same- Washington Square is a similar story, minus the land value since it sits on Indy’s moribund east side.
The ice rink is an intriguing conundrum, one that sort of hits home. The next county over from where I live was the home of the fifties heartthrob James Dean. His family farm is still there. My stepdad’s mom went to elementary at a one-room school with him! Anyway, the old high school in Fairmound was falling apart. Portions of brick walls had to be buttressed to keep from falling over! There was some talk about preserving the auditorium stage he first learned to act on, but then the whole school went to hell and was torn down before plans could be solidified. It happens.
Lloyd Center has quite the story and history. Unlike most other major malls, that tended to be built on undeveloped (read: cheap) land in the suburbs, this was built under two miles from downtown. Part of that reason was the whole idea of creating a more suburban “second downtown” out of already developed land. Unlike other places, this was not traditional urban renewal, but one rich man’s desire to do so and buy up all the property in the area. It definitely feels more West Coast than not, as the LA is littered with many “second downtown” attempts, with mixed results (Century City a good example). But the closeness to actual downtown of Lloyd District/Center is really unique.
I noticed its proximity to downtown when I looked at it on Google Maps. Good to have some background and color. What are your opinions on its redevelopment? Any nostalgia there?
I have less than 5% nostalgia to Lloyd Center because I’m not a Portland native, and when I moved here in 2001 I was 25 and past my “going to the mall” years. (I did buy my first-ever smartphone there, though.) The only mall that holds any nostalgia with me is my long-plowed-over dinky hometown mall, a mall so insignificant that I don’t think it appears on any Dead Mall site. (It went out of existence right about the time when the internet started, so that probably has something to do with that.)
I do know that the closure is hitting some other people hard, especially those who learned to ice skate there. But it’s definitely a generational thing: I’m sure that most of that nostalgia is coming from Millennials or older. I don’t think my Gen-Z “step-daughter” went there much as Lloyd Center was lacking for most of her life, whereas the newer, bigger suburban malls (Washington Square, Clackamas Town Center) had the stores they gravitated towards.
Which mall was the dinky one you grew up with? I know you grew up on the east coast from perusing your blog, but can’t remember exactly where. Sorry for that oversight!
The Ansonia Mall, which got torn down in 1996. If you search for it, most hits will come up with Ansonia Shopping Center, the big-box complex that was built over it. Apparently that’s now in trouble.
Of course it is. Sad.
Michiana’s first mall, Scottsdale, was torn down and a more traditional strip shopping center was built in its place. It’s more vital than the mall was in its last 10 years. My hope is for the same in Muncie.
We will see. I think there’s some subterfuge involved in Hull’s plan, though- for example, the “family restaurant” coming in is almost assuredly MCL relocating from the mall proper.
Here’s hoping! It will still be strange to be without a mall, as moribund as it has been lately.