Uptown Hutch, formerly Hutchinson Mall, is a regional shopping complex under redevelopment at 1500 E. 11th Avenue in Hutchinson, Kansas, in Reno County.
It sits along the E. 11th Avenue corridor on the city's east side and anchors the commercial area known as the E-Loop district.
The property spans about 525,000 square feet and serves retail, entertainment, and educational uses for Hutchinson and the south-central Kansas region, including western and southern Kansas communities.
Opened in 1985 as a $30 million enclosed mall developed by Melvin Simon & Associates, it is now owned by RockStep Capital and is being converted through a city-approved $16 million project into a mixed-use, exterior-facing retail center.
Hutchinson Mall's Mid-1980s Six-Anchor Ambition
The plan was $30 million and 500,000 square feet on the east side of Hutchinson, Kansas.
Melvin Simon & Associates - the Indianapolis developer that would later become Simon Property Group - confirmed the project in 1983.
By early 1985, leasing was still being sorted out. Mall officials said 25 store spaces had been signed, and 24 more lease proposals were out to prospective tenants.
An opening date of February 15, 1985, had been announced, but the mall did not open until August 28, 1985, several months later than the original target.
When the doors did open, the lineup was substantial. JCPenney, Sears, Dillard's, Service Merchandise, Walmart, and Newman's anchored the building.
Inside, shoppers found KB Toys, Kinney Shoes, Claire's, Zales Jewelers, Regis Salon, and B. Dalton filling out the retail mix.
For a city of roughly 40,000 people sitting at the center of south-central Kansas, it was a different kind of shopping experience - enclosed, climate-controlled, built around the department store model that dominated American retail in the 1980s.
The address was 1500 E. 11th Avenue, and the building sat at the eastern edge of the city's commercial corridor.
Newman's did not last. Its space was converted into a larger movie theater, while an existing smaller cinema inside the mall was broken up into additional storefronts.
Hutchinson Mall Under Simon: Occupancy, Anchor Shifts, and the 2004 Sale
Simon Property Group's 1998 annual filing listed Hutchinson Mall at 525,600 square feet of gross leasable area, 100 percent fee-owned.
The anchor lineup by that point included Cinema 8, Dillard's, JCPenney, Sears, and Hobby Lobby.
Walmart had left in 1994 for a larger store to the northeast of the city, and Hobby Lobby had taken over that former anchor space before the end of that year.
Occupancy stood at 79.3 percent in 2002 - a meaningful drop for a regional mall that was only about 17 years old.
The anchor count was down to Dillard's, JCPenney, and Sears. By 2003, occupancy had recovered to 90.1 percent, with Hobby Lobby among the anchors.
The numbers bounced, but the trend was clear enough: Hutchinson Mall was no longer a growth property in Simon's national system.
Simon sold the mall on June 15, 2004. It was one of five non-core properties Simon disposed of that year.
The sale closed out roughly two decades of Simon ownership and left the property in the hands of a new owner at a moment when enclosed malls across the country were beginning their long contraction.
How Dillard's, Sears, and JCPenney Left Hutchinson Mall
Dillard's had been at the mall since opening day. In early 2012, the company disclosed it would close its 70,000-square-foot Hutchinson Mall location in the second quarter of the year.
The closure was confirmed during the quarter ending July 28, 2012. That was the first of the original department store anchors to go.
Sears followed in 2014, choosing not to renew its lease. The announcement came in January of that year, with an April departure date.
The Sears box, like Dillard's before it, went dark. Dunham's Sports moved into the former Sears space in October 2016 after hiring began that summer.
JCPenney was the last of the three. On March 17, 2017, the company confirmed it was closing the Hutchinson Mall location as part of a nationwide reduction that included five Kansas stores.
At the time of the JCPenney announcement, 36 storefronts inside the mall sat vacant. The three original anchors - JCPenney, Sears, and Dillard's - were all gone within five years of each other.
The enclosed mall model that had defined the building since 1985 no longer had its structural core.
What Filled the Empty Anchors at Uptown Hutch
The former JCPenney space was reused rather than left vacant. In 2021, it was divided between Ollie's Bargain Outlet and Hutch Vintage Market, an antique business.
This approach broke up a department store space of over 70,000 square feet into smaller units, moving away from the mall's original structure while putting the space back into active use.
The former Walmart portion developed differently. Walmart left the site in 1994, and Hobby Lobby later occupied part of that area.
The location at 1500 East 11th Street in Hutchinson was included among the Orscheln stores that transferred to Bomgaars.
Today, the west end of the property, once the Walmart space, is occupied by Bomgaars and Hobby Lobby.
The building also expanded beyond retail uses. ESSDACK's Reno County Learning Center set up operations inside Hutchinson Mall.
In January 2018, Almont Studios of Boston signed a lease for 10,000 square feet within the mall, using it for manufacturing and custom-content work.
The Rebrand to Uptown Hutch and the Shift Away From "Mall"
In July 2020, the property was given a new name. RockStep Capital, which had acquired the site and was assembling a portfolio of repositioned retail centers, announced that Hutchinson Mall would become Uptown Hutch.
The change was intentional. The word "mall" was dropped because the owners said it no longer reflected what was happening at the property as it evolved beyond the traditional enclosed-mall format.
The owners were moving away from the enclosed-mall model rather than continuing to present it that way.
The Community Improvement District created for the property in 2015 had already set up a way to finance redevelopment.
By 2025, the owners were seeking to raise the CID rate from 1 percent to 2 percent to help fund an estimated $16 million project.
The plan focused on converting the interior mall into a mixed-use layout with exterior-facing storefronts.
The Hutchinson city council approved the expanded CID in May 2025 and attached conditions tied to benchmarks that RockStep would need to meet.
The 2025 plan covered most of the main mall building and the east-side movie theater, while excluding the Bomgaars and Hobby Lobby section.
Key redevelopment work was expected to be completed by 2027.
The Interior Closes: March 2026 and the End of an Era
Hibbett Sports closed here on June 14, 2025, months before the interior went dark.
Construction continued in the food court area into early 2026, and management directed walkers and shoppers to use specific entrances near ESSDACK, TJ Maxx, and Dunham's Sports.
As of January 2026, no closing date for the interior had been announced.
At the same time, management confirmed that Maurices, Buckle, and Bath & Body Works would move to new exterior-facing storefronts on the west side of the building.
Events moved quickly after that point. Bath & Body Works opened its new exterior location on February 27, 2026. Buckle followed with its new exterior store on March 9.
Famous Footwear chose to close instead of relocating. Selectel Wireless announced it would leave the mall and move to a downtown Hutchinson location.
On March 11, 2026, a closure date was announced. The interior portion of Uptown Hutch would shut down starting March 23.
Maurices closed its interior store on March 21 and reopened in its new exterior space on March 28. Famous Footwear closed on March 21 and did not reopen.
The interior of the building, which had operated as Hutchinson Mall since 1985, went dark on March 23, 2026, roughly forty-one years after the mall opened.
At 525,000 square feet, the building has more empty space than tenants, and RockStep's $16 million bet is that it won't stay that way.
Notable Milestones
1985 - Hutchinson Mall opens in Hutchinson, Kansas as a new enclosed shopping mall
June 15, 2004 - Simon Property Group sells Hutchinson Mall
2012 - Dillard's closes its Hutchinson Mall store
2014 - Sears closes at Hutchinson Mall
2015 - A Community Improvement District is created for the mall property
2017 - JCPenney announces the closure of its Hutchinson Mall store
July 2020 - Hutchinson Mall is renamed Uptown Hutch
2021 - Ollie's and Hutch Vintage Market open in former JCPenney space
May 2025 - Hutchinson approves a revised redevelopment plan and expanded CID for Uptown Hutch
June 14, 2025 - Hibbett Sports closes at Uptown Hutch
February 27, 2026 - Bath & Body Works opens in a new exterior-facing location
March 9, 2026 - Buckle opens its new exterior-facing store
March 23, 2026 - The interior portion of Uptown Hutch closes as redevelopment moves forward
