Concord Mall felt like a ghost town when I last visited Elkhart and Goshen. Near the end of 2022, back then, the only hint of life was a small cluster of cars huddled outside J.C. Penney! After that anchor pulled out a few months later, most of the mall’s remaining tenants prepared for a future that wouldn’t involve them. By 2025, most of the mall had been transformed into a business park. Here’s what the complex looks like today.
I’ve already written a thirteen-minute read about Concord Mall, so here are the CliffsNotes: plans were announced in 19701. Spearheaded by a Grand Rapids-based developer, the mall started off with a 93,000-square-foot Montgomery Ward superstore and more than fifty retail and services businesses2. Opposite Wards’ was a 100,000-square-foot, two-story Robertson’s Department Store3, the firm’s first offering outside of South Bend3.
Concord Mall opened on August 9, 19724. Aside from Ward’s and Robertson’s, it featured places like Calandra’s Hallmark, Claire’s Boutiques, Drake’s Department Store, Fox Jewelry Company, Grinnell’s Music Store, Hickory Farms, Hopman Jewelers, Kinney Shoe Corporation, Louie’s Tux Shop, The Milady Shop, Newman’s Women’s Apparel, Osco Drug, Sound Masters, The Village Scene, and others5.
In rapid-fire order, a 140,000-square-foot J.C. Penney was built to the west in 19766. Robertson’s left the mall and was replaced by Terre Haute-based Meis in 19857. Meis became Elder-Beerman in 19898. Montgomery Ward closed in 20009. Hobby Lobby moved in and took over two-thirds of the former Ward’s space two years later10.
Much of the rest of Ward’s empty space was filled the following year when regional electronics store ABC Warehouse moved into all but the old auto center10. Pippin Dental & Braces eventually located in the old car bays. On the other side of the mall, Elder-Beerman was rebranded as Carson’s in 2011 and closed seven years later11.
Over time, smaller businesses like Champs Sports, Dr. Tavel Family Eye Care, and longtime local favorite Enzo Pizza began to serve as de facto anchors for Concord’s mostly empty mall. Meanwhile, the handful of businesses that filled the old Ward’s spot continued to operate from exterior entrances. Unfortunately, redevelopment plans and ownership changes came and went with no real action.
Industrial Commercial Properties of Cleveland, Ohio, finally acquired Concord Mall in October 2023. Work soon started to convert the complex to Concord Business Park12 by gutting the building down to the studs and ceilings, tearing down the concourse to J.C. Penney, removing second stories in some of the anchors, and otherwise reconfiguring much of the structure into a blank slate for redevelopment.
Today, Concord Mall is essentially split in two. The southeast side serves as a surviving retail strip that takes up the old Montgomery Ward space. Hobby Lobby and ABC Warehouse still hold things down along with Pippin Dental. That part of the mall has received a modern, high-contrast paint job! It looks much better than when I was a kid.
The lineup slightly shifts southwest. Chase Bank anchors an outparcel corner as it has for years, but Dr. Tavel moved from its spot near the mall’s central atrium to a building formerly occupied by Teachers Credit Union. Nearby, I learned to drive in the Concord Commons strip. At the same time, I figured my way around a fantastic Volcano Pizza with ground sausage under the cheese and fennel seeds. I didn’t snag any photos of the old Concord Commons strip during this last visit, but I’m glad it’s still there.
Along with Concord Commons, the old Concord Cinema 1 & 2 also lingers due south of the old mall. The twin-auditorium theater opened in 1973 as a straightforward suburban movie house. Unfortunately, its lasting claim to fame has nothing to do with what played on its screens. Instead, the building became the site of a shocking crime when its owner, William P. Miller, was murdered by a disgruntled manager in 198713. Concord 1 & 2 finally closed as a discount house under new ownership in 1997.
The rest of Concord Mall hasn been completely reimagined to a format that would’ve been unthinkable back in its retail heyday. The old Robertson’s/Elder-Beerman/Carson’s, the old J. C. Penney, and even the enclosed mall concourse have all been completely repurposed! My drive started at the former Robertson’s, now occupied by Sierra Forest Products.
Sierra handles lumber, laminate, and veneer distribution inside the old department store. Standing in front, though, you can still see Robertson’s as it used to be: aside from a sharp new sign, the outards of the building haven’t changed much at all.
What used to be Concord Mall’s main entrance has also been transformed. From east to west, you can almost trace the scale of the change: twenty, maybe thirty inline stores were wiped clean to make way for something different- Mox Warehouse Logistics.
No longer is there a food court or a sign for J.C. Penney. Instead, Mox seems to thrive in the world of outsourced warehousing and logistics. Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a better setup than an emptied-out shopping mall! With wide-open floors, easy access, and massive square footage, it’s almost like places like Concord were accidentally built for a next life like this.
I managed to sneak a look inside Mox from the southwest side of the business park, and the place was buzzing! Racks and pallets filled the cavernous space, stacked high and stretching in every direction. Right in the middle of it all, Concord’s old domed atrium still rose above the floor. I wasn’t expecting it to remain! Seeing it survive and loom over a warehouse instead of a carpeted put or crowded line into WaldenBooks was a genuine shock.
It wasn’t long before I made it around to the rear of the old mall. J.C. Penney was still recognizable because of its glazed brickwork, but the store’s architectural flourishes and atrium had been discared to make way for loading docks and truck bays for LEER Group, a manufacturer of pickup truck caps. The concourse that connected it to the rest of the mall was absent.
Even so, the past hasn’t been completely erased- it’s just been hidden under new layers of utility if you know where to look. All told, the proportions of Concord Business Park still feel like a mall! The spacing between walls, the odd angles, and the way certain sections seem too wide or too open for their current purposeall hint to the reginal commercial center on what used to be on US-33 between Mishawaka Road and Minuteman Drive.
The old Concord Mall is the kind of place where your memory starts to fill in the gap. Storefronts reappear, tile floors snap back into place, and wooden framing fills the halls. For a moment, you’re back home in the low hum of a Saturday afternoon crowd in the seventies! That’s what the mall felt like even in around 2010. That’s especially obvious by passing Concord’s busineses still in service.
That said, a semi soon rumbles past. Just like that, you’re back in the present, a place where Concord Mall isn’t dead- just rewritten to a story where the crowds and storefronts have been replaced by forklifts and loading docks. It’s not the ending anyone would’ve imagined fifty yeras ago, but the tale of Concord Mall is a reminder that places don’t always disappear- they adapt. Between Elkhart and Goshen, situated between pallets and truck bays, the bones of the old mall are still doing what they were always meant to do: holding life, just in a completely different form.
Sources Cited
1 Gregg, R. (1970, February 25). Dunlap to get huge shopping mall . The South Bend Tribune. p. 5.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 Robertson’s Ventures Outside South Bend *(1972, August 8). The South Bend Tribune. p. 24.
4 Miss Indiana to Be at Mall Opening (1972, August 8). The South Bend Tribune. p. 22.
5 We’re Coming to Concord Mall (1972, August 8). The South Bend Tribune. p. 29.
6 New Penney’s store opens (1976, July 8). The South Bend Tribune. p. 9.
7 Brokaw, R. (1985, April 26). Robertson’s Concord site goes to Meis. The SouthBend Tribune. P. 29.
8 Brown Group Sells Department Stores (1989, April 29). The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 13.
9 Prescott, H. (2001, January 5). Somber mood dominates news for retailers. The South Bend Tribune. p. 16.
10 Prescott, H. (2002, April 17). Concord Mall gains new anchor. The South Bend tribune. p. 16.
11 Carson’s stores closing in Elkhart and Benton Harbor (2018, January 31). WSBT 22 [South Bend]. Web. Retrieved December 24, 2025.
12 Construction of Elkhart’s old Concord Mall nearing completion after two years. WSBT [South Bend]. Web. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
13 Jury Visit to Concord Mall Movie Theater (1988). The Elkhart Truth Collection. Elkhart Public Library. Indiana Memory. Web. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
