Two new commercial buildings planned for Indio Grand Marketplace

*A rendering of what new buildings at the site of a former mall could look like when and if they are constructed.*

The Indio Planning Commission in Wednesday unanimously approved a planning review for the development of two new commercial buildings at the Indio Grand Marketplace mall on Highway 111.

The approval of the project, brought forward by the mall owner and developer the Haagen Company, comes just one week after the Indio City Council agreed to enter into exclusive negotiations with the Haagen Company for the potential sale of city-owned property behind the mall.

The developer is still working on attracting tenants to the proposed development, but the commercial spaces will be suitable for retail, food, and medical services. In addition to new tenants, the developers plan to move some of the mall’s existing tenants to the new development to make the redevelopment of the mall itself easier.

The buildings will measure about 12,800 square feet in total, with one building measuring approximately 4,800 square feet with three tenant spaces, and the other would measure about 8,000 square feet with four tenant spaces.

The plan is to develop about 1.5 acres along the mall’s northern frontage and add 58 new parking spaces, landscaping, bike racks, and trash enclosures.

The developer said this project is merely the first step in a “multi-phase” redevelopment of the Indio Grant Marketplace, and they plan to return to the Planning Commission in the future with more proposals for plans related to the mall.

“It’s really critical to get these [commercial buildings] approved and built first,” a land use development consultant for the Haagen Company said. “The Haagen Company will be investing well over $3.5 million on this project … it will improve the frontage of Highway 111 and it will activate the street front with patios and open space.”

The Haagen Company’s involvement in the mall area extends beyond this commercial project. The city recently entered exclusive negotiations with the company for the potential sale of 15.35 acres of city-owned property behind the mall, two years after a previous development deal expired.

*A drone image of the former Indio Fashion Mall, which opened in February 1975, now known as Indio Grand Marketplace.*

That earlier agreement called for ambitious plans to transform the vacant city land into a mixed-use property with a 150-room hotel, hundreds of apartment units, restaurants and a public park. The land has remained undeveloped since 1988, when the city used eminent domain to demolish 80 homes in the Nobles Ranch neighborhood for a mall expansion that never materialized due to financing problems.

Alexander Haagen III, who heads the Haagen Company and owns the Empire Polo Club, abandoned the hotel and apartment plans when the previous deal fell through in 2022.

Haagen was present at Wednesday’s meeting, and told commissioners he’s been working in the city since 1983 and that this new project “is something really spectacular for the city.”

Referencing the mall’s fraught development history, Commissioner Gloria Franz sought assurances from the developer, “I’ve been around the block a couple of times,” said Franz, “The mall has a long history in Indio…I’m excited to see some activity there,” she said before requesting a more concrete timeline.

Haagen and the land use consultant said they’re still working on securing tenants, making it difficult to estimate a timeline, but ideally they would like to start construction by the end of the year, and finish construction sometime in Q3 or Q4 of next year.

“The idea is not just to get some tenants in here, but to get the best we can get,” Haagen said.”We’re competing with with La Quinta, with the West Valley and the East Valley, and even we’re competing with ourselves, the city of Indio, across the other side of the freeway.”