BUSINESS

No fines for Simon mall stores not open on Thanksgiving

James Briggs
james.briggs@indystar.com
Circle Centre Mall in Downtown Indianapolis won't be open on Thanksgiving.

Don't bother heading Downtown to visit Circle Centre Mall on Thanksgiving. It won't be open.

Ditto for the Fashion Mall at Keystone, an upscale shopping center at 86th Street and Keystone Crossing.

Simon Property Group Inc., the largest mall owner in the U.S., is bucking a trend in which some retail landlords are pressuring stores to open on Thanksgiving. About half of major mall owners have sent letters to tenants informing them that they're required to open on Thanksgiving and will face fines if they don't comply, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Simon, the owner of Circle Centre and Fashion Mall, will open most of its shopping centers on Thanksgiving. Simon-owned Castleton Square Mall, Greenwood Park Mall and Hamilton Town Center, for instance, all will open at 6 p.m. Thursday. Even more extreme, Edinburgh Premium Outlets will open at 6 p.m. Thursday and remain open until 10 p.m. Friday.

But Simon is letting retailers at those locations decide whether it's in their best interest to open on one of America's most beloved holidays.

"I can just speak to what we do, and it's voluntary," Simon spokesman Les Morris said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, mall owners add language to leases requiring tenants to open during normal business owners. Increasingly, that language is being interpreted to include Thanksgiving Day, a holiday that might have been off limits a few years ago. Nonetheless, those leases allow mall owners to force tenants to open so they will drive more foot traffic to shopping centers.

Circle Centre and Fashion Mall will remain closed Thanksgiving because of a lack of demand among retailers and shoppers for them to open, Morris said.

"Both will be busy on Friday, but there's just not an appetite for opening on Thursday," Morris said. "Historically, that's been the case."