Like many in Northwest Indiana, Josh Huddleston has childhood memories of visiting Southlake Mall — throwing coins in the fountains and visiting KB Toys. "The mall opens before the stores open, and I remember waiting out in line for the gates to open, to get the hot toy of the year," Huddlestun recalled.
Now, Huddlestun is mayor of Hobart, and he helped recognize the mall's 50 years of operation last September.
"Southlake Mall, in particular, has been a major fixture in Northwest Indiana and even beyond," says Micah Pollak, an associate professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest. "Since its opening, it has been a draw of consumers from a very broad area because of the density of shopping it provides and the nature of the shops."
Southlake Mall first opened its doors on September 18, 1974 — three weeks earlier than originally expected. In a newsletter, the mall's developer proclaimed that the early opening would allow "tenants to get a strong foothold on the Fall and Holiday Business," predicting that "the impact on Northwestern Indiana will be substantial."
The mall's opening came at a time of change in Northwest Indiana's retail landscape.
"Before there was a Southlake Mall, there was a thriving downtown Gary, and of course, there were circumstances and issues that occurred that resulted in Gary not being the viable downtown community that it was," says Chuck Hughes, president of the Gary Chamber of Commerce.
He says the departure of residents to nearby places like Merrillville began in the early 1960s, and by the mid-1970s, businesses were following suit. "Of course there was an impact there on the local business community," Hughes says. "By the same token, that action had taken place, so there was still a need for shopping, businesses."
This was a trend seen throughout the country in the postwar era, as the federal government invested in highways and suburban housing.
Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic and the author of Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. "But all of those government plans really kind of ignored the social aspect of making a neighborhood, and malls stepped in to create a kind of main street town square environment for those growing suburbs," Lange says.
When Southlake Mall opened, it included a list of stores familiar to Region shoppers.
The directory released by the developer ahead of the opening shows a mix of local retailers like Edward C. Minas Company and Brumm's Bloomin' Barn and larger chains like Sears and Walgreens.
J.C. Penney was also making the shift from downtowns to malls, after its start in Wyoming in 1902. "Seventy-two years later, as America was building shopping malls in real communities, J.C. Penney formed a partnership with Southlake Mall that still remains strong today," said Jodi Ringler, the current manager of J.C. Penny's Southlake location, during September's anniversary celebration.
Gradually, the mall evolved into what General Manager Peter Karonis calls a cherished gathering place. "Thinking back to those early days when the first families strolled through these halls, filled with the excitement of something new," Karonis said at September's event. "Over the years, this center has witnessed it all, from fleeting fashion trends to periods of growth and expansion, as new stores and experiences were added to meet the thriving needs of the community.".
And Mayor Huddlestun points out, it's been a common experience for people from across Northwest Indiana. "When you talk to people, they have a memory of the mall," Huddlestun told reporters after the anniversary celebration. "Everybody has some type of memory of the mall, if they're from the Region — whether they came here as a kid, whether they brought their kids here — and so everyone has some nostalgic moment here at the mall."
Lange says it's important not to overlook the role malls play in people's lives. "People do have, like, really deep sentimental feelings about them," Lange says. "Like, you'd think, 'Oh, it's just a collection of commercial stores. How can anyone feel deeply about it?' But people have all kinds of memories from childhood going on up, and it's important to have stories that kind of make a place for people to share those memories and think about that space as important in their lives."
But while many Region residents have memories of the mall, Pollak says its role has changed over time. "It used to be a place where you would just automatically go if you had any shopping to do, right? Like if it was a Saturday, you would go and spend half the day or the whole day at the mall and include movies, things like that. And it's not that same kind of draw anymore, but it still is very concentrated shopping," Pollak says.
This comes as malls nationwide have faced challenges in recent years.
Lange says by the 1990s, the country was over-saturated with malls, and the Great Recession in 2008 became a tipping point. "That is when a lot of malls started to go under because the U.S. was over-malled," Lange says. "There was too much competition between malls for stores and shoppers, and so there's been a long, slow period of decline that was only accelerated by the pandemic."
"And then following the rise of online shopping, they've been really forced to figure out ways to reinvent themselves in this kind of changing landscape," notes Pollak.
And even if you want to leave home to do your shopping, you have options, according to Hughes. "You know, there's strip malls. There's mixed-use development where towns and cities are talking about having commercial retail below and housing above, and that's a trend in a lot of places," Hughes says.
One of the biggest challenges for large indoor malls is what to do with the former department store spaces.
Lange says the large stores that, for decades, drew in customers and kept malls busy and profitable aren't as popular with younger shoppers. "People really do not, by and large, shop at department stores anymore," Lange says. "They just are not where millennials and younger want to shop."
She says malls have come up with some creative ideas, built around social experiences. "They'll put in a fancy movie theater with food and drink. They'll put in a trampoline park. They'll put in a pickleball court. They'll put in a coworking space because more people are working from home, but sometimes, they need an office space that's close to their house, but isn't in their house," Lange says.
But can trampolines, pickleball and coworking spaces carry malls economically the way department stores have in the past? Pollak says that remains to be seen.
"Again, are they financially enough to keep the mall going? I hope so, and I think that's the challenging path that the mall has to navigate over these next few years and decades is to figure out what things work and what things maybe are not quite good enough to have that space dedicated to them," Pollak says.
At Southlake Mall, Mayor Huddlestun says its leaders appear to be doing a good job. "I think that's what we're going to see retail in the future is people are looking for an experience, and I think you can get that here at Southlake Mall," Huddlestun said in September. "They're constantly being innovative."
General Manager Karonis said the mall has stayed relevant by providing a great family experience and looking for new opportunities, "Whether it's different restaurants, retailers, or one of our latest additions, Kid's Empire, which is a kids play zone located on the upper level across from our food court."
Pollak believes Southlake Mall will continue to have an important role in Northwest Indiana's retail landscape, but it will look different than it did in the 90s and early 2000s. "I think the areas where it's been successful and probably its role in the future will be focusing on the type of retail stores where there's value added to an in-person experience, whether it's like picking up the smartphone that you're thinking about buying online and kind of playing with it and seeing how it feels or trying on clothes or maybe buying some kind of niche project that isn't available easily online."
And while you can get a lot of your shopping done at your local strip mall, it doesn't replace a day at Southlake.
"Of course, strip malls have been pretty much the bane or probably detrimental to the large malls, but I think there's still a need and a necessity for the large malls because, even in strip malls, they may not have all of the stores and all of the services that a mall would have," Hughes says.
"There is efficiency shopping and there's social shopping, and it's social shopping that indoor shopping malls really fostered from the beginning," Lange notes. "They were this place where stay-at-home women could go with their children during the day and meet each other and be doing something useful in the sense of shopping but also socializing, walking around, kind of looking at stores."
There's also plenty of economic room both for shopping malls and revitalized traditional downtowns, according to Mayor Huddlestun. "We have dedicated individuals to focusing on downtown, and we have individuals focusing on the Route 30 corridor," Huddlestun said after September's anniversary celebration. "So, we're able to focus on both of them at the same time and not take our eye off the ball on either one of them."
He said it's very important that the mall stays occupied and viable, not just for the city's finances but also for its plans for the future. "We've always said that the U.S. 30 corridor is kind of the capital of the Region, right? Like it's that central spot, and this mall is kind of that anchor that kind of holds all the thing together," Huddlestun added.
Going forward, Hughes says he'd like to see the mall recognize the city of Gary's role in its history. "I would love to talk to folks, have someone talk to me from Southlake Mall — particularly since, I would imagine, that Gary residents, both local and Gary residents who transplanted to other suburban areas, are still integral to the success and have contributed to the 50-year success of Southlake Mall," Hughes says.
After 50 years, changing shopping habits and more competition, Southlake Mall remains a destination.
"You know, I have young kids and a lot of the draw is, kind of, this reinventing of the mall space from being just concentrated shopping where you maybe take a break to eat at the food court into an experience that kind of hits more a variety of people and backgrounds," says Pollak. "So for example, I go to, like, the Kids Empire and FunFlatables and these experiences that are kind of taking some of the place of the traditional anchor institutions."
"I mean, I'm not a great shopper, but I shop there on occasion," says Hughes. "Let me put it this way, I'm regularly there to get a massage and a pedicure, to be honest with you."
"I can't wait to continue to share memories with my kids," Huddlestun told those gathered for September's anniversary celebration. "All of your families get to share the memories."
