Circle Centre Mall was opened to the public on September 8, 1995, and incorporates existing downtown structures such as the former L. S. Ayres flagship store.

Before the mall could open, both the Ayres and Block stores had closed, leaving Nordstrom and Parisian (later converted to Carson's) as anchors.

The fourth level features vacant entertainment venues (former Tilt Studio and a former nine-screen United Artists movie theater), but also now contains non-retail tenants.

Efforts were made in its design to incorporate historic elements, such as the retention of the facades of buildings that had previously existed on the site.

In April 1979, Mayor William Hudnut and Melvin Simon & Associates announced the completion of a study that envisioned a two- or three-story mall between Meridian Street and Capitol Avenue.

The Occidental Building at the southeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets, which was the home of the L. Strauss & Co. clothing store, was bought for $2.8 million.

However, Simon & Associates failed to meet a December 1 deadline to sign a permanent agreement because they had not been able to complete financing for the mall.

Delays in finalizing the financing subsequently led Mayor Stephen Goldsmith to declare a moratorium on further city participation.

As a result of these problems, large portions of the mall site consisted of deep holes in the ground for over a year.

[3] In February 2018, the Simon Property Group announced a multimillion-dollar renovation for Circle Centre, its largest ever, that would be worked on over the next two years.

The third-floor food court will have new lounge areas, banquette seating, and community tables to attract more restaurant patrons.

[9] Simon continued to handle leasing, until they sold their remaining stake in December 2021 to the Circle Centre Development Company.

[10] In December 2023, the Circle Centre Development Company announced that it had reached an agreement to sell the mall to Hendricks Commercial Properties.

The cast-iron facade of the Vajen Exchange Block Building, which had been preserved by the Historic Landmarks Foundation from an earlier demolition outside the Wholesale District, was also used.

However, in July 1990, amid a financial downturn, the new owners of Saks stated that no new stores, including the proposed Indianapolis one, would be built during the new three years.

Initial plans had been to locate the fourth anchor in the Occidental Building at the southeast corner of Washington and Illinois streets.

[6] On April 4, 1991, the May Department Stores announced that its L. S. Ayres subsidiary would not be part of Circle Centre, with the downtown location closing in the spring of 1992.

In June of that year, Parisian announced that it would open a store in Circle Centre, using the first three levels of the Ayres building.

[15] The mall was unable to attract another anchor store for the location after three years of effort, so an agreement was reached with The Indianapolis Star to move its newspaper offices into 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of the upper levels of the former Nordstrom space.

On January 31, 2018, Bon-Ton announced that it would be closing the store (along with 46 of its other locations) in ten to twelve weeks, leaving the mall with no anchors.

[20] In addition, substantial amounts of space are now used by non-retail establishments: The Indianapolis Star uses 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of the former Nordstrom space,[16] and Brown Mackie College, which moved-in in 2011, takes up about 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) on the fourth level;[21] however, in 2016 the school announced that it would not accept any new students as it shuts down its operations.