In a national business climate of on-the-brink malls, the owners of Indio Fashion Mall have pulled the plug on a city-approved renovation, but high hopes remain for the potential of the site.
The City of Indio confirmed in a recent Facebook post that the Haagen Company, owner of the mall since 2018, has cancelled its redevelopment plans. These plans had already received prior approval from the city.
Indio Development Director Carl Morgan noted the rocky road that shopping malls around the country are facing in today's economy as a possible factor in the company's decision.
"Malls across the country are struggling as consumers move to other retail formats and more experiential shopping opportunities," Morgan said. "We believe there is great potential for these parcels that will benefit our residents and taxpayers, and we look forward to working with the Haagen Company in pursuing creative ideas for the site."
These creative ideas may include, Morgan said, drawing other developers to lend their support. While the door has closed on a five-year planning and marketing effort for the redeveloped mall, the site has so much potential that it is not being forgotten, he said on Facebook, predicting benefits to both residents and taxpayers.
His vision includes city-owned property behind the mall that might be used to spark interest in future projects. Among the city's plans and incentives to attract future development to the site is the recently adopted Highway 111 Specific Plan and a Development Impact Fee Deferral Program.
Redevelopment plans at the mall have been active since 2018, the year Haagen Company took over the mall site, according to KESQ. The mall even had a reopening date scheduled for late 2022 and, toward that end, had already secured design approval in a 5-0 city vote in 2021. The project would have encompassed both interior and exterior revitalization as well as landscaping.
Originally constructed in the mid-1970s, the mall was once on the city's radar for expansion, which it planned to accomplish with the purchase of properties to the south in the 1980s, KESQ reported. This expansion, like the new Indio Marketplace mall, never materialized.