INDIANAPOLIS — For more than a decade, Lafayette Square Mall has been on the downslide, first losing its anchor tenants and then name brand retailers and then finally closing in late 2022 as local merchants were evicted in anticipation of a total makeover. Developer Fabio de la Cruz, the Principal of Sojos Capital, originally envisioned turning the interior of the mall into Window To The World, an all-inclusive enclosed village, for $200 million, but, upon further reflection, pivoted to The Square, a billion dollar development including housing, retail, hotels, venue and community and youth sports facilities centered around the mall site at West 38th Street and North Lafayette Road. First Alamo Drafthouse location in Indiana to open in northwest Indianapolis While there has been some moderate update to the exterior of the 50-year-old building, de la Cruz told FOX59/CBS4 that observers shouldn’t conflate a lack of visible construction with stalled development. ”Some people think that we stopped working,” he said. “What I want to say is that we never stopped. Always our idea was, ‘Let's do the outside first.’” Soon, in early 2025, assuming state housing tax credits are approved, de la Cruz and his private partner will begin construction of a 144-unit apartment complex on the north end of the 126-acre site once the former Sears Automotive Center is torn down. ”The first phase includes an apartment complex,” he said, “but, also, we’re doing a boutique hotel, we’re doing a film studio, we’re doing a sporting complex and we’re gonna finish the mall.” De la Cruz said he has already invested $150 million in property acquisition and upgrades in the community, with a $15 million, 14-screen movie theater across the street from the mall set to open next month as the first of his neighborhood site improvements. ”The biggest one is Alama Draft House that now is owned by Sony and it's gonna be the best Sony Theater open in the world,” he said. “That’s gonna be a great addition to Indiana. A great addition to the city and our neighborhood.” Alamo Drafthouse acquired by Sony. Changes coming? De la Cruz said his strategy was always to rebuild the neighborhood around Lafayette Square before tackling the mall’s redevelopment. ”How that’s gonna look inside, I have an idea but my team, my design team hasn’t begun to take that on yet and they actually take it on next year,” he said. “Now, it's gonna be part of The Square. We’re gonna keep most of the building. Most of the anchors are going to be taken down and we gonna build up from scratch.” The developer said that once hotel and other venue and business owners see what’s going up on the site, he expects his phone to ring with inquiries about locating at The Square. ”When people see that we are actually working on the bigger part of the mall to be sure that we open really soon, and with the first phase of the mall already open on the way, I don’t think that we will need to go to them. “They gonna come.” Crucial to de la Cruz’ plans to pay for the project are tax credits and city financial incentives on which the developer has of yet to confirm a price tag. ”We need to wait for the incentives to make sure that we accomplish that next month,” he said. ”If we get the competitive incentives program, we will start right away.” De la Cruz has spoken of his own humble beginnings, coming to the U.S. from Argentina twenty years ago, but insists he can build The Square without outside investors. ”We haven’t reached to any investors because the real reason is we don’t need them to do this part of the project.” The developer expects Phase I of his project to be open in 2026.