Marquette Mall; Michigan City, Indiana
Cozily nestled on the southeastern shores of Lake Michigan, Michigan City is an industrial, working-class city of about 32,000 people. It’s about 60 miles east of downtown Chicago and 40 miles west of South Bend. The dominant features of the landscape are the giant, 600-foot NIPSCO energy cooling tower and Mt. Baldy, a 123 foot sand dune which is part of the beautifully underrated Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Michigan City is also known for its downtown outlet mall and for Blue Chip Casino, Indiana’s largest riverboat.
Aside from the outlet mall downtown, the dominant shopping area in Michigan City is on the south side along Route 421, on which sits Michigan City’s lone enclosed mall at the intersection with Route 20. Marquette Mall opened in 1967, and today it is anchored by Carson Pirie Scott, JCPenney and Sears. In addition to the anchors, the mall also houses a large office tower which seemingly sprouts from the base of the mall behind Carson’s. The Marquette Mall Office Tower, at seven stories, is the tallest building in Michigan City. On our first visit to Marquette Mall in 1999, both Caldor and I noticed the mall’s office tower upon leaving the mall and couldn’t stop laughing at its rather non-sequitur placement behind Carson’s, complete with blue letters reading ”MARQUETTE MALL” at the very top.
Of Marquette Mall’s 500,000 square feet of leasable space, a large portion is vacant. Even though the anchors are filled, the space along the mall’s T-shaped corridors is troubled. For example, the only women’s clothing retailers currently open as of December 2006 are Lady Edge, which appears to be local, and Rainbow Shops, an urban-wear retailer chain. Also, Marquette Mall’s website invites patrons to “stop at one of the Mall’s full-service restaurants such as Applebee’s or Old Country Buffet, or enjoy a quick meal at one of the many quick-food purveyors.” On the current directory, I only count Applebee’s and something called Bingsoo, which I’m hoping is Asian cuisine. Where are the many other quick-food purveyors? And what happened to Old Country Buffet? If they aren’t sticking around, something’s the matter.
It may sound like we’re poking fun at poor Marquette Mall, but we would love to see it succeed. So too would local residents, who don’t want to drive over 30 miles to the shopping mecca surrounding Southlake Mall in Merrillville, or 40 miles to the shopping in South Bend. Someone posted on northwestindiana.com last month and was dismayed about the mall’s offerings, blamed management, and even offered suggestions for stores even lower-tier successful malls have.
So why is Marquette Mall mostly unsuccessful? People don’t want to drive over 30 miles for a regular mall, do they? The area around the mall is full of big-box, restaurants, and strip malls, and is one of Michigan City’s retail meccas. The other retail mecca, however, might be the key stealing away Marquette Mall’s thunder. Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets opened in the mid-1980s in downtown as part of an urban renewal project. The outlets have been very successful ever since, and draw tourists from the Chicago area on their way to Michigan for vacation. Furthermore, their offerings essentially replace the need for a regular mall.
We visited Marquette Mall again in March 2005 and took the pictures below. Share your stories and opinions here.
XISMZERO
December 21st, 2006 at 3:48 pm
Really dig those stage-light effects, especially the rays “showcasing” Sears. That’s something I’ve never seen in a mall.
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Caldor
December 21st, 2006 at 7:00 pm
…couldn’t stop laughing at its rather non-sequitur placement at the mall…
We laugh at really random stuff.
Also, I seem to remember this mall as being a bit more… orange. Did they repaint it or something? I still love those funny slats all over the ceiling, though.
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Steven Swain
December 21st, 2006 at 9:39 pm
This is one funky, ugly mall. The office building is a neat addition though.
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Matt
December 22nd, 2006 at 12:37 am
I think we’re in a factory here, not a mall. It looks so….industrial. It’s the ceilings.
It’s also suprising to hear of a revitalized downtown with its own outlet mall laying a traditional enclosed mall to waste.
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Scott
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Is this named Marquette Mall after Madison-Marquette? They own a few malls here, but didn’t rename them. Are they going the way of Westfield in terms of naming?
Scott
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Allan
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:52 pm
I’d heard that this mall was struggling somewhat. Its too bad the pics inside obviously confirmed what I feared about this place. But however, its interesting to see that it does have Carson’s, since I didn’t think any of their stores were that far east in the Chicagoland area(other than their Woodmar and Southlake Mall locations). That must be one of the few things that keeps this mall from completely dying(a la Randhurst, as its best-known anchor also is Carson’s, and that the difference between the 2 I can think of is that Randhurst lost Penney’s, unlike Marquette).
And as for the fact that it has to compete with Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets for shoppers, I wouldn’t underestimate the impact that Southlake Mall also has on siphoning away foot traffic that this mall likely would have otherwise(not to mention as of right now on their site, Southlake has 199 stores). So, considering that both Marquette and Southlake have a Carson’s, I bet this is a major reason that even some local shoppers probably opt to drive the extra miles over to Southlake instead.
But yay for the fact that it actually has an operating fountain!! I’ve been planning to make some trips to local malls near me to see how they’ve changed in recent years, and the Marquette fountain pic is a reminder that I should look to see if any of my malls I hung out at as a teen still have the fountain(s) in them.
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Bobby
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:18 pm
This mall used to have a Walgreens at one point. I think it’s either the REX store or vacant.
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Mark
December 27th, 2006 at 3:26 am
I think the reason people don’t shop at this mall alot is that it probably something to do with the interior.
windowless,dark,low ceiling corridors.
Who the heck would want to shop at a place like that???
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John Lowe
December 29th, 2006 at 4:19 am
For the record, it was I (who did the Woodmar tribute site that Labelscar provided the link back to) who lamented at the lack of choice in the specialiry shops in the Northern Indiana forums.
When you have mom-and-pop stores filling in the blanks, it cheapens the mall in the shopper’s perception and smacks of transiency. Blame should be placed on mall management, and rightfully so. They allowed the decline to reign unchecked.
Marquette Mall needs more than an infusion of new national and regional retailers to reinvigorate the mall. It needs proactive, assertive management who could make such a rejuviantion endeavor a reality. One needs to look what happened to Hammond’s own Woodmar Mall just to get a foreshadowing of what could happen in the future if these issues are not addressed, and fast.
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Prangeway
December 29th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
I would guess the mall is named after Father Marquette, who was one of the first European explorers in the area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Marquette It’s just a hunch though.
I agree with John Lowe’s comments completely. In order for malls to remain successful, management must acquire and retain popular tenants. All too often I’ve seen beleagured, dated malls fall by the wayside while new strip malls open adjacent to them and take many of their stores away. It’s a huge waste in so many ways.
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Citizen
July 25th, 2007 at 5:26 am
I live here and shop at Marquette Mall often, many memories there but honestly if it wasnt for Footlocker and Pennies they would have shut down long ago.
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David
December 16th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
For the person wondering what happened to Old Country Buffet. Old Country Buffet’s parent company Buffet Inc bought out Ryans, and in most areas of the country, wherever Ryans did better than Old Country Buffet, Ryans stayed open, while Old Country Buffet closed. That was the case at Marquette Mall in Michigan City. Buffet Inc decided to keep Ryans open, and close Old Country Buffet at Marquette Mall, and Old Country Buffet leaving LaPorte County Indiana. When I last went to this mall 3 months ago, I saw a restaurant called Ninas open where Old Country Buffet used to be. For dinner time on a Sunday, it wasn’t busy at all. I don’t know how well it did when old Country Buffet was there, but with the restaurant not having an exterior set of doors makes it difficult to tell from the street where the doors are, and if the restaurant is open or not, when regular malls hours say it’s closed.
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bob
February 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I live in MIchigan City and that mall sucks really bad the only good stores in there are lady edge, footlocker, and the 3 main ones(jcpennys sears and carsons) other than that … the mall sucks … its not a place you can really have fun its just so dark and gloomy and not happy looking at all!
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chris
March 30th, 2008 at 11:17 am
I regularly drive to Valparaiso or Merrillville to shop and my money ends up out of town because of Marquette Mall. Pure and simple.
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chakal
April 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
this mall sucks they need 2 destroy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! build a better one
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Allan M.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Very interesting, if those are the future plans of the owner for remodeling/expansion. Since to my knowledge, the only Dillard’s in the whole state of Indiana is in a mall(Richmond Square? correct me if I’m wrong) in Richmond, Indiana, and also that’ll be the first time they have a store remotely close to the Chicagoland area at all.
From what I’ve heard about this mall, it’s a very good thing this mall is getting a remodeling/expansion, especially since the outlet mall in Michigan City really seems to have hurt this mall a lot.
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Chip
July 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
So Dillards wants in on Chicago? I wonder if a Dillards/Bon-Ton merger may be in the future
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Jonah Norason
July 10th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I sure hope not. Odd choices in the Dillard’s layout. The Ford City Mall and Woodfield Mall ones make sense (Woodfield is famous for having prototype stores). I haven’t heard too much about River Oaks, but none of it was very good. And The Plaza? Really? That’s great, but kind of too good to be true.
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Jonah Norason
July 11th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
A Dillard’s store is a department store, mid-to-upscale, very similar to The Bon-Ton or Macy’s. Very common throughout the southern United States. Absorbed many brands, similar to Macy’s, though they have not absorbed any since 1998.
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Jonah Norason
July 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
There are a handful of Dillard’s stores in Ohio, which are mostly the result of the Higbee’s acquisition.
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Rich
July 11th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Dillard’s identity isn’t what it used to be. They tended to absorb chains that were half a notch up from the old May chains and a little below the Federated chains, almost entirely in the Sunbelt. They are more conservative than Macy or Federated in their merchandise and often have no home furnishings. The store became popular with Wall Street because of its centralized purchasing, which unfortunately meant lackluster merchaniding and a lack of attention to local tastes. They’ve been slumping badly for several years and I don’t think they’ve been able to benefit from the Macy/Federated problems..
They still have stores in Cincinnati. They’ve closed several former Higbee stores. They were a poor steward of Higbee’s upper-middle niche in Cleveland. Higbee had successfully latched on to the upper income shoppers that once went to halle’s once Halle’s closed. Dillard cheapened and cluttered the downtown store before closing it (Dillard usually closed downtown stores after buying chains, so it was a novelty to keep one) and basically narrowed the merchandise range. If Macy had kept Field’s as it was, Field’s would simply have destroyed Dillard. Macy probably would best them, anyway. They run crappy, largely uniform stores and do best in sunbelt markets where the competition is basically the same. they seem to invest rather little in stores. The test stores in Chicago are an odd bunch–Dillard seems particularly clueless in serving middle class African-Americans (most of the Cleveland stores they closed all had that clientele); Ford City, Evergreen Park, and River Oaks seem like bad places to start for them.
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Allan M.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Interesting, so Dillard’s was briefly thinking about opening test stores in several malls in Chicagoland, then pulled the plug on that idea? Didn’t realize Dillard’s was briefly considering doing that. The 3 malls(besides Woodfield) would’ve been interesting choices for having test stores at, since(and like Jonah said earlier) usually no retail chains do test/new prototype stores other than at Woodfield Mall.
I apologize too for making an error about the number of stores Dillard’s has in Indiana earlier, they actually have 3 stores, and not 1. The other 2 stores(besides the one in Richmond, Indiana, and interestingly enough, I visited that store on my last trip to Richmond) are in Clarksville and Evansville.
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Lay
July 31st, 2008 at 11:08 am
i live in Michigan City and i know about the mall and i dont shop there. It has nothing to do with how it look we dont shop there because the stores are to high!!
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Heather G.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I lived in Michigan City for 4 years & rarely went to the mall there at all… interestingly enough, I lived in Richmond, IN both before & after Michigan City, and the citizens of both places think of their hometown malls pretty much the same… basically: they suck …yes, Richmond has Dillard’s, & that’s the biggest draw at Richmond Square Mall– they built on a whole new wing to accomodate Dillard’s… I have so few memories of MC’s mall because we went there so rarely… we always went to South Bend or Merrillville for REAL malls, just like in Richmond, we go to Indy, Dayton, or Cincinnati
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Lonnie Newman
August 20th, 2008 at 7:36 am
I’m looking for trhe fredmyers jewelers can i please get the the number or the correct website. Thank you
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Rich
August 21st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Dillard would offer nothing new to Chicago. They do well in Sunbelt markets but have faltered once they crossed the Mason-Dixon line.
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John
December 20th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I remember fondly Higbee’s in Downtown Cleveland. It was a top notch store with a great deal of class,and offered good service,and so on. Then Dillard’s dove in and it just wasn’t the same. They closed the Silver Grille,and most of the restaurants that were popular with Clevelanders. Dry-walled off the elegant first floor elevator lobby,and the recently before they closed the historical wooden escalators.
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Jayne
January 7th, 2009 at 12:19 am
My boyfriend and I visited this mall about 6 months ago, on our way to Blue Chip. There’s not much there except the three anchors, a Bath & Body Works, several cell phone stores, and a card store. The fountains were dry and it was practically empty. Sad.
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