Malls · Indiana

Century Mall

Imported, unreviewedDemolishedMerrillville, IN

Century Mall opened 1979, declined, sold 2006, demolished 2007, replaced by Century Plaza strip mall under Tri‑Land ownership in Merrillville · summary, model-written

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Site profile6 elements · what this retrofit is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Former anchors

Montgomery Ward

This site: Montgomery Ward wikipedia · all sites with this

Place

Grocery within 800 m

This site: 4 stores openstreetmap · all sites with this

High social vulnerability tract (SVI ≥ 0.75)

This site: 0.77 cdc-svi · all sites with this

High tornado risk

This site: Very High fema-nri · all sites with this

Renter-majority tract

This site: 61% census-acs · all sites with this

New use

Retail (continued)

This site: …new_use field extraction · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

Now

Status	Demolishedextracted, unreviewed documented then closed and largely demolished in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
New uses	retailextracted, unreviewed reported
What is there now	A strip mall development named Century Plaza now occupies the land and some of the former anchor store buildings.extracted, unreviewed documented A strip mall development named Century Plaza now occupies the land and some of the former anchor store buildings. en.wikipedia.org
Retrofit year	2007extracted, unreviewed reported
Redeveloper	Tri-Land Propertiesextracted, unreviewed reported

Deals and debt

Date	Event	Price	Parties	Source
2006	Sold	—	Tri-Land Properties	Wikipedia
1982	Sold	—	Simon Property Group	Wikipedia

Securitised debt and public filers

Filings (2001 to date) that name “Century Mall” and “Merrillville” (39 hits, first 39 sampled, 4 other filers such as tenants left out). No commercial-mortgage trust names this mall in the sample, which does not rule out a securitised loan. Text matches, not a title search. Open the search · all trusts.

Kind	Filer	Filings	Dates	Forms
Public owner (strong)	SIMON PROPERTY GROUP L P /DE/	1	2001-03-30 to 2001-03-30	10-K 1

Site context

Transit within 800 m	no rail station; 3 bus stops within 400 mOpenStreetMap
Motorway junctions within 2 km	253, junctionOpenStreetMap
FEMA flood zone	no NFHL polygon at point (unmapped or outside coverage)FEMA NFHL
EPA-regulated facilities within 500 m	15: ASPEN DENTAL; CENTURY MALL; CVS PHARMACY 10176; CVS/PHARMACY - MERRILLVILLE; KMART 3180EPA FRS
Census tract 18089042509	3,589 people, 1,229 per sq mi; median household income $71,711; median gross rent $1,693; 61% renters; 8.2% vacant units; 0.9% commute by transitACS 2023 5-year
Within a 10–15 minute walk (800 m)	4 of 6 daily needs: 4 grocers, 0 schools, 0 parks or playgrounds, 4 health, 4 civic, 15 food and drink; 0 cycleway segments, 0 sidewalk-tagged segmentsOpenStreetMap
Opportunity Zone	noHUD
Housing permits, Lake County (IN), 2024	14 units in 5+ unit buildings, 14 in 2–4, 1,621 single-family; 2023: 210 in 5+Census BPS
Social vulnerability (CDC SVI 2022, tract)	overall percentile 0.77; socioeconomic 0.61; housing and transport 0.83; 18% below 150% of poverty; 11% of households with no vehicleCDC/ATSDR
Other atlas sites nearby	0 within 10 km, 3 within 25 kmcomputed
Overture Maps	no place match; building footprint 3,710 m²Overture (CDLA-Permissive 2.0)
Attention: Wikipedia page views	25,932 since 2015; 2,084 in the last 12 months (-23% vs the prior 12); peak 2024-12 with 573Wikimedia
Tract change 2013–2023	tract boundary changed between the 2010 and 2020 census; no 2013 comparisonCensus ACS
Natural hazard risk (FEMA National Risk Index, tract)	relatively moderate overall (score 56.8); expected annual loss $1.4M; high: tornado, cold wave; community resilience relatively highFEMA NRI
Tax-credit housing within 1 km	1 LIHTC properties, 0 units: Madison Manor Apts (None units)HUD LIHTC
Retail trade in the county, 2025 (BLS QCEW)	22,369 jobs in 1,504 establishments; average annual pay $36,852; employment location quotient 1.18; employment -1.6% on the yearBLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 44-45, private
Jobs located in the tract, 2022	7,017 jobs; 780 in retail trade, 902 in accommodation and food (workplace blocks summed to tract 18089042509)Census LEHD LODES8 WAC 2022
Upward mobility (Opportunity Atlas, 2010 tract)	children of low-income (25th percentile) families reached the 40th income percentile as adults; 1.3% incarcerated at the 2010 count (214 children in the sample); born 1978–83, measured 2014–15Opportunity Insights
Food access (USDA FARA 2019, 2010 tract)	low-access at 1 mile, not low-income; 35% of residents more than 1 mile from a supermarket; poverty rate 12.1%; median family income $75,028; 94 SNAP householdsUSDA ERS
Schools	Merrillville Community School (KG-12); 0 public schools within 1 mileNCES EDGE
Elevation	678 ft above sea level at the site pointUSGS 3DEP
Storm events in the county, 2016-2025	236 county-logged events: 150 thunderstorm wind, 25 hail, 23 flood, 16 tornado; $14,020,000 property damage reported; 1 direct deaths; forecast-zone events (most flood, winter and heat) not countedNOAA Storm Events
Homes for sale in ZIP 46410, 2026-09	median list price $259,900 (-4.6% on the year); 102 active listings; median 51 days on market; 22% with a price cutRealtor.com Research
Retail trade in the county, 2012 to 2023	1,521 establishments (-0%); 24,256 jobs (+0%)Census CBP
Housing market in the county	typical home value $250,943 (+2% 1 yr, +23% 5 yr); typical rent $1,457/mo (+5% 1 yr), 2026-09Zillow Research
House price index, tract, 2025	228 (2000 = 100), +46% 5 yr, +88% 10 yrFHFA
Traffic on the busiest road within 600 m (2024)	23,814 vehicles a day on SR 53 (principal arterial, 4 lanes); 1,935 trucks; 38 counted segmentsFHWA HPMS

Summary, model-written

Century Mall opened as an indoor mall in 1979 with anchor stores Goldblatt's and Montgomery Ward. It experienced steady decline through the 1990s, losing national chains, and was sold to Simon Property Group in 1982 then to Tri‑Land Properties in 2006. The mall closed and was largely demolished in 2007, after which a strip mall named Century Plaza was built on the site.

Why. The record cites competitive and economic factors that drove steady decline and the departure of national retail chains throughout the 1990s, followed by the 2001 closure of the Montgomery Ward anchor and subsequent interior store losses.

Where it stands. The site is demolished and now hosts the Century Plaza strip mall, controlled by Tri‑Land Properties since its 2006 purchase.

For a planner

Precedent: conversion of a demolished mall to a strip mall (Century Plaza)
Policy tools: not stated in the record
Open questions: long‑term viability of the current retail configuration and potential for further redevelopment

For a developer

Control: Tri‑Land Properties (owner since 2006)
Site size: not stated in the record
Entitlement status: built out as Century Plaza strip mall (post‑2007)
Constraints (flood, transit, environment): not stated in the record
Market signals (tract data): not stated in the record

What we do not know yet

Missing site size and parcel boundaries
Missing zoning, floodplain, transit access, and environmental condition data
Missing detailed tenant mix and financial performance of Century Plaza
Inconsistency between year_opened (1979) and event timeline (opened 1975)
Data verification status is draft, indicating possible unreviewed model‑extracted fields

Generated by nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b on NVIDIA API via Hermes CT from the fields, parcels, deals and context layers on this page, with no outside knowledge. It is regenerated when the record changes and has not been checked by a person. How it is made.

Similar sites

Bashford Manor Mall, Louisville, KY · Malls · opened 1973; closed 2003
Cape Cod Factory Outlet Mall, Bourne, MA · Malls · opened 1972; closed 2011
Century Plaza, Birmingham, AL · Malls · opened 1975; closed 2009
Crossroads Mall, Largo, FL · Malls · opened 1984; closed 2005

Elsewhere on the web

Pages with photos

DEAD MALL BLOG — From @nwi-cosplayers… dead-malls.tumblr.com
Century Mall’s owner eyes $50M convention center for Merrillville ... chicagotribune.com
Century Mall In Merrillville, IN: From Bustling Shops To Empty Halls ... bestattractions.org

Search images: Google · Bing · Commons · references: ULI case studies · Google Scholar

Multifamily screen

closed or demolished site (sourced)

Inputs: record fields (size, status) and county Census ACS 2018–2023 figures (growth, rent). How the points work. Not a recommendation.

History and original facts

Opened	1979Wikidata
Closed	2007extracted, unreviewed documented then closed and largely demolished in 2007. en.wikipedia.org
Original developer	Bass Financialextracted, unreviewed documented Developed by Bass Financial of Los Angeles, California en.wikipedia.org
Anchors	Montgomery Ward, Goldblatt's
County	Lake County
Census division	3 · East North Central
Notes	Wikipedia categories: Demolished shopping malls in the United States

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA. Know it? Tell us.

Background

Century Mall was an indoor shopping mall located on the southeast corner of Broadway and US 30 in Merrillville, Indiana, United States. The mall opened in 1975 with anchor stores Goldblatt's and Montgomery Ward. Competitive and economic factors sent the mall into steady decline and national retail chains left throughout the 1990s until the mall was ultimately sold for redevelopment in 2006 then closed and largely demolished in 2007. The mall's interior stores also suffered following Montgomery Ward's remodeling. Montgomery Ward removed their mall entrance and told customers that no stores remained, when in reality close to a dozen stores were still open. A strip mall development named Century Plaza now occupies the land and some of the former anchor store buildings.

Excerpt from Wikipedia (authors and history), CC BY-SA 4.0. May be older than the record above.

Timeline

1975 Mall opened with anchor stores Goldblatt's and Montgomery Ward
1977 Broke ground
1979 Opened (Wikidata)
1982 Simon Property Group bought the mall
1990 Interior opened to mall walkers
2001 Montgomery Ward anchor store closed
2006 Purchased by Tri-Land Properties
2007 Renamed Century Plaza
2012 Staples office supply store opened
2017 Burlington Coat Factory moved to nearby Crossings at Hobart

Sources

Wikipedia: Century Mall · supports: after notes, original developer, status, year closed
13 quoted sentences
then closed and largely demolished in 2007.
Developed by Bass Financial of Los Angeles, California
A strip mall development named Century Plaza now occupies the land and some of the former anchor store buildings.
then closed and largely demolished in 2007.

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Century Mall, Merrillville, IN." Record m-8b41b929c3, imported, unreviewed. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/malls/in/merrillville-century-mall/ (accessed 2026-10-21).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_merrillvillecenturymall,
  title = {Century Mall, Merrillville, IN},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/malls/in/merrillville-century-mall/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record m-8b41b929c3, release 2026-10-21, tier: draft. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-21}
}

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