The big demolition and renovation project at Indian River Mall, once a place islanders enjoyed shopping, has not begun and there is no date certain for the arrival of bulldozers. But the project isn’t dead. Instead, it appears to be going through a typical process of review and adjustment with Indian River County planning staff. Plans prepared by Schulke Bittle & Stoddard show that the county has provided two rounds of comments on the project and is now awaiting the latest response from the engineers. As of now, there have been no formal county approvals. When every detail of the developer’s plan is to the county’s liking, the staff will approve a provisional site plan that will allow the developer to apply for a demolition permit. The plan shown on the engineer’s CAD drawings is interesting. Illinois-based developer DTS Properties, which spent $25.6 million to acquire the old Macy’s building, the old Sears store and most of mall property in 2024, plans to create a hybrid – open-air and enclosed – shopping center with a central green space. <span style="font-weight: 400;">To begin with, the entire eastern half of the mall, including the former Sears and Macy's stores and the parking lot surrounding the former Macy’s building, will be stripped away.</span> In its place, DTS will build a fast-food restaurant and five large retail spaces totaling 115,000 square feet and fronting on the new parking lot, facing route 60. This type of “drive-up and walk-in” retail has done better in recent years than stores in enclosed malls. The vacancy rate in malls nationwide is about 112 percent higher than the average retail vacancy rate, and an average of 40 malls close each year, according to a recent retail shopping report from Capital One. The restaurant with a drive-thru will be at the outer, eastern end of the property, with the five retail spaces lined up beside it. At the far end of the retail frontage, there will be a large, green park-like area connecting the detached retail to the section of the mall that remains. Even though malls have fallen out of favor with U.S consumers, largely due to ever-more-efficient online shopping portals and drive-up retail, enclosed space still comes in handy for shopping on rainy days and during the sweltering months of Florida’s long summer. Baby Boomers grew up in the golden age of malls, which came into existence along with America’s sprawling suburbs and peaked in the 1980s with thousands of retail Meccas thriving all across the country, and many of them still enjoy the traditional mall shopping experience – if good stores and amenities are available. It is unclear if DTS intends the hybrid model is a long-term or interim solution for Indian River County’s failed mall. Soon after buying the mall property, DTS revealed ambitious plans for future phases including more open-air shops, specialty restaurants, a 130-room hotel, a 9,775-square-foot school, and five residential buildings with 56 units in each building. That plan would keep the movie theater at a reduced size, but those features don’t appear on the current plans, so it is hard to say if they are still in the works. The fate of the once thriving but now defunct food court also is unclear, as DTS did not respond to multiple phone inquiries. Meanwhile, Indian River County residents await the rumble of heavy equipment knocking down portions of a mall that opened with high hopes 30 years ago, but entered foreclosure in 2014 and was sold the next year at auction to Wells Fargo for $100. It has changed ownership several times since then and struggled ever since to keep tenants. The J.C. Penney and Dillard’s anchor stores remain open and are owned and managed by other companies. How they will be incorporated into the ultimate redevelopment plan is unknown.