Richmond Mall is a fully enclosed regional shopping center at 3801 East National Road in Richmond, Indiana, in Wayne County in the eastern part of the state.
The property sits along U.S. Route 40, locally called East National Road, and has three separate entrances from the highway. This location places it on a main east-west route through the area.
The mall is the primary enclosed retail center for Richmond and the surrounding Wayne County market, attracting shoppers from across eastern Indiana.
It opened in May 1966 as Richmond Square. The developer was Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation. The center has stayed in operation for nearly six decades and remains the only enclosed regional shopping mall serving the Richmond market.
Richmond Mall Opens Bigger Than Anyone Expected
Three thousand parking spaces. A 94-seat diner inside a Woolworth. A JCPenney large enough to replace a downtown store that had been in Richmond since 1943.
Richmond Square opened on May 12, 1966, as a major development, not a small trial.
Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation, already active nationwide, considered it an unusual project because Richmond was one of the smallest cities where they had built an enclosed mall.
Montgomery Ward opened ahead of the rest of the center on March 3, 1966, giving it a two-month lead.
The rest of the mall followed in May. Shoppers entered a central corridor with live plants, wooden seating, and climate control.
JCPenney occupied 100,000 square feet at one end. Woolworth filled 25,000 square feet at the other.
Kroger and Thrift Drug handled grocery and pharmacy needs. Additional tenants included Jo-Ann Fabrics, Thom McAn, Paul Harris, Zales, and MCL Cafeterias.
Thrift Drug's store was the first store the chain opened in Indiana.
The mall was built at 3801 East National Road on U.S. 40, just east of downtown, with three direct access points from the highway.
It was easy to reach. The approval process took much longer, involving two years of legal battles.
The Rezoning Fight Over Richmond Square
DeBartolo first announced the project in 1963, placing it at the southwest corner of U.S. 40 and Garwood Road on a piece of land called the Scott property.
Rezoning it from residential to general business required approval, and a coalition of opponents pushed back hard.
Downtown business interests and parties connected to the existing shopping center at U.S. 40 and Garwood Road argued that a new enclosed mall would cause overdevelopment and traffic problems, damage retail in the city center, and expose them to what they called illegal competition.
The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected the challenge and affirmed the lower court's judgment.
Construction began on May 17, 1965.
The original 1963 vision had been considerably larger - two department stores, a supermarket, a clinic, two apartment complexes, a motel, an office building, and a recreation center.
What got built had room for thirty-five stores. DeBartolo considered it ambitious for a city of Richmond's size.
The concerns the opponents raised in court had a real basis.
When Richmond Square opened, Kroger, Montgomery Ward, Moore's Auto Supply, Household Finance, Thom McAn, Neumode Hosiery, and Schiff's Shoes all relocated from their existing downtown locations to the new mall.
Woolworth kept its downtown store running alongside its mall location, but most of its peers chose one or the other.
The First Cracks: Kroger Leaves and the 1980s Reshuffle
For the first decade, Richmond Square worked. Local charities ran sales kiosks at a semi-annual fair held inside the mall.
The tenth anniversary in 1976 drew visitors for a puppet show, a gem and mineral exhibit, and a contest centered on guessing the weight of a large decorative artificial cake.
The prize was a trip to French Lick.
In 1979, Kroger announced it was leaving for a larger store west of the mall, with a target opening in 1980.
After Kroger cleared out, the mall's owners planned to subdivide the old supermarket space into six smaller units.
The remaining tenants raised concerns about declining occupancy and sales. The JCPenney manager reported in September 1981 that his store was still performing strongly.
By 1983, Noble Roman's Pizza had taken over part of the old Kroger footprint.
Montgomery Ward's space also changed. The company converted its Richmond Square store into an outlet operation in the early 1980s.
By the end of 1986, the lease expired, and Ward left entirely. Sears bought the space in 1988, relocating from Gateway Plaza.
Rather than open the full store at once, Sears started by selling women's clothing in a portion of the former Ward location and expanded gradually as merchandise moved over.
Hallmark also relocated from Gateway to Richmond Square around the same time.
A directory from 1986, published to mark the mall's twentieth anniversary, listed Maurices, Musicland, Circus World, Afterthoughts, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward Outlet, Woolworth, and Thrift Drug among the major tenants.
Simon Property Group and the Dillard's Expansion
Simon Property Group acquired the DeBartolo company in 1996 and took over management of Richmond Square.
Thrift Drug closed during that transition. Simon announced an expansion that would attach a Dillard's department store to the rear of the mall.
Dillard's planned an 86,000-square-foot store scheduled to open in October 1997. The opening date slipped to November. The actual opening was November 2, 1997, making Dillard's the third anchor.
In early 1997, before Dillard's arrived, OfficeMax had taken the former Woolworth space, which had been vacant for about three years.
The late 1990s brought a run of chain additions. Bath and Body Works, Kay Jewelers, and Sbarro came in after Dillard's.
Elder-Beerman opened its Shobilee footwear concept, replacing an El-Bee Shoe Outlet at Gateway. Garfield's Restaurant and Pub took over the old Noble Roman's space.
In 1999, Victoria's Secret opened inside the mall, and Chili's opened in the parking lot.
No comparable wave of new tenants followed. Simon sold the property on January 9, 2003, for $18 million.
Three Owners in Three Years and a Quiet New Decade
Bayview Financial was the buyer in 2003. Okun Enterprises took over in 2004, hired Jones Lang LaSalle as leasing agent, brought in a new mall manager, and signed a lease with Aeropostale.
By January 2005, Industrial Properties of America had purchased the mall. Hibbett Sports opened that month. Sears closed in 2013, leaving the eastern anchor vacant. That space sat empty for five years.
Hull Property Group purchased the mall in 2015 - the company's first acquisition in Indiana.
Hull renamed the property Richmond Mall and carried out interior renovations. In 2017, it added a McAlister's Deli on an outparcel at the mall.
In late 2018, Hull announced that Dunham's Sports would move into the former Sears building, relocating from Gateway shopping center.
Tenants continued to leave. JCPenney, Justice, Victoria's Secret, Deb Shops, MCL Cafeterias, Aeropostale, and Hallmark all closed.
Hull attributed the departures to chains exiting smaller-market locations during the 2010s retail contraction, a process that accelerated after 2020.
The ownership response was to pursue local and independent retailers rather than wait for national chains to return.
The 2019 Tornado and the JCPenney Closure
On June 15, 2019, a tornado touched down in Richmond and hit the mall. Winds reached 85 mph.
JCPenney and OfficeMax took the most severe damage of any stores in the complex. The mall reopened less than three weeks after the storm.
When it did, nine stores were still closed. By November 2019, JCPenney had reopened.
OfficeMax remained closed, with a December 2019 reopening expected.
Less than a year later, on June 4, 2020, JCPenney announced it would close its Richmond Mall location as part of the chain's bankruptcy restructuring.
JCPenney had been at the mall since opening day in 1966, fifty-four years. Its departure removed the last of the original anchor tenants.
Richmond Mall in 2026: Murals Over Empty Storefronts
As of early 2026, ten tenants were operating. American Eagle and Bath & Body Works had recently closed.
Vacant storefronts had been covered with murals, historic photographs, and promotional graphics for the businesses still open, giving the interior the feel of a maintained public space.
The mall was also functioning as an indoor walking space for local residents.
The official tenant list includes Dillard's, Dunham's Sports, Hibbett Sports, Maurices, Finish Line, GNC, Nirvana, Creative Eyebrows, Elite Nails, and The Pretzel Twister, with Chili's, McAlister's Deli, and Olive Garden in the parking lot.
Mall hours run Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 9 pm, and Sunday, noon to 6 pm. The events page listed no scheduled events.
