PROVIDENCE — The Arcade, the nation’s oldest indoor shopping mall, closed to the public yesterday as its owners prepared to transition the downtown landmark from being home to a handful of small, independent businesses and eateries into a space for a single company or retailer.

But Evan Granoff, a managing partner at Granoff Associates, the Providence firm that owns the Arcade, said that a planned $8-million renovation announced in May has been challenged by the recent troubles in the national economy.

“It’s gotten a lot scarier out there,” Granoff said at his downtown office yesterday. “There are not a lot of people thinking of expanding. Retailers are just trying not to have to hold on to a lot of inventory on their shelves and other businesses are just trying to survive in this climate.”

He said that the firm will not move forward with renovation work, slated to begin this summer, until a new tenant is identified for the 37,000-square-foot space at 130 Westminster St.

“No new tenant has been identified, though we are still actively looking and developing alternative plans for its use,” he said. “We will make renovations to fit the needs of the tenant.”

And he made clear that maintaining the familiar three-level arrangement of storefronts in the Greek Revival structure was not on the table. “The model that it had –– one of small shops –– did not work, and has not worked in 107 years,” said Granoff.

The Arcade, which was built in 1828 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, is assessed at about $1.4 million, according to city records. Granoff Associates purchased it in 2005 from Johnson & Wales University.

According to Granoff, his firm last year purchased $8 million in state tax credits for historic preservation –– at a cost of about $100,000 in up-front fees –– that will be used to offset the renovation work. The state legislature passed a moratorium on the issuance of historic tax credits to new projects last year.

The firm owns a number of other major properties in the city’s Financial District, including the Union Trust and Turk’s Head buildings, both of which were sold recently.

Meanwhile, workers yesterday were temporarily storing supplies on the mall’s ground floor –– where many of the independent eateries had been located –– and a temporary office had been set up on the second floor in preparation for the opening later this month of the nearby Hampton Inn.

The 115-room hotel, located on Weybosset Street in the former home of the city’s Franciscan friars, is co-owned by Granoff Associates.

The last remaining tenant in the Arcade was the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, a 33-year-old nonprofit organization that has operated a museum and offices on the Arcade’s second floor for almost 10 years.

Charles Newman, chairman of the society’s board of directors, said that the society is expected to vacate the Arcade on Dec. 15. The museum’s artifacts, some of which date to the 1600s, will be placed in storage until a new location can be found.

The society’s lone full-time staff member will have an office on Eddy Street in space rented by the nonprofit Rebuilding Rhode Island with Christmas in April, according to Newman.

The 12 other businesses that had been in the Arcade were ordered out by July 1, but successfully sued to stave off eviction. Since then, those businesses have either moved or closed.

Don Boehner, owner of the jewelry shop Copacetic, and Bette Hills, owner of the Providence Cookie Co., both relocated to a former art gallery on Peck Street, not 100 yards from the Arcade.

“It cost me everything to move here,” said Boehner. “But we’re finding it’s a popular street for walkers. A lot of people are discovering our stores.”

pmarcelo@projo.com