Across the line: University Park Mall

OPENED MARCH 14, 1979 · 6501 GRAPE ROAD · IN MISHAWAKA — BOUNDARY-PRINTED, NOT THIS CITY'S RECORD

Mishawaka's mall, named here because every other entry in this section bends around it: University Park Mall stands in Mishawaka, on greenfield ground that city had recently annexed at Grape Road and State Road 23, and its full record belongs to Mishawaka's build. What this section carries is its weight. The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation announced it in 1976, in joint venture with the local developers George and Donald Cressy; Sears opened ahead of the mall on March 1, 1979, and the mall itself on March 14, 1979, with JCPenney, Sears, L. S. Ayres, and Hudson's for anchors. The retail directories list it at 922,000 square feet; Simon Property Group, its owner, describes it in court papers as "the only super-regional mall serving South Bend/Mishawaka and Southern Michigan," dominant in its market since 1979. Hudson's became Marshall Field's in 1997 and closed in 2006; the box was demolished for an outdoor concourse, the Village, where Barnes & Noble opened on April 8, 2009. Ayres became Macy's in 2006; Sears closed in 2019, leaving one anchor box vacant in Simon's current listing, which counts 137 stores behind Macy's, JCPenney, and Barnes & Noble. Six miles from Scottsdale, six years its junior and half again its size, University Park is the reason the two entries before this one end the way they do — and the reason the Grape Road corridor, in Mishawaka, is the region's retail capital while South Bend's centers are a south-side corridor, a northwest node, and a campus gate. That is the whole of its place in this city's file.

Sources:

1. Wikipedia, "University Park Mall," from the Mishawaka and retail-directory record — the 1976 announcement, the DeBartolo–Cressy joint venture, the March 1 and March 14, 1979 openings, the anchor succession (Hudson's, Marshall Field's 1997–2006, the Village concourse, Barnes & Noble April 8, 2009; Ayres to Macy's 2006; Sears 1979–2019), and the 922,000-square-foot directory figure.
2. Gumwood HP Shopping Partners, L.P. v. Simon Property Group, Inc., No. 3:11-cv-268 (N.D. Ind., memorandum opinion, March 13, 2013) — Simon's description of University Park Mall as the only super-regional mall serving South Bend/Mishawaka and southern Michigan, dominant since 1979.
3. South Bend Redevelopment Commission, Resolution No. 1955, South Side plan (2003) — University Park developed "in a greenfield area on Grape Road in an area recently annexed by Mishawaka," opened 1979.
4. Simon Property Group, University Park Mall property listing (current, November 2026) — 137 stores; anchors Macy's, JCPenney, and Barnes & Noble, with the Sears anchor vacant.