It’s official: Yard House coming to Circle Centre

Yard House officially is coming downtown to Circle Centre mall.

The Irvine, Calif.-based chain will take 13,460 square feet at 42 W. Maryland St. in part of the space formerly occupied by anchor tenant Nordstrom, according to a state filing.

IBJ first reported in January that beer-themed Yard House was nearing a deal to take ground level space at the mall. Yard House is a Darden Restaurants Inc. concept with 48 locations in 17 states, with the closest to Indianapolis being in Cincinnati.

It’s unclear when the restaurant will open. Calls to representatives of mall manager Simon Property Group Inc. and Yard House were not returned Friday morning.

Yard House portrays itself as an “upscale casual eatery” and is widely known for its vast array of beers on tap—up to 250 imported, craft and specialty ales and lagers.

Landing the national chain could help the publicly traded Simon lure more tenants to the 210,000-square-foot space, which has not had a retail presence since Nordstrom left the mall in July 2011.

Other chains such as Bobby’s Burger Palace, a restaurant chain developed by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, Bonefish Grill and New York-based Dinosaur Bar-B-Que have scouted the location at times but have yet to commit, brokers say.

Simon has leased about 100,000 square feet in the former Nordstrom space to The Indianapolis Star, which is set to move its longtime headquarters at 307 N. Pennsylvania St. to the mall Aug. 15.