St. Paul, Minn. – Will more Mall of America add up to a better Mall of America? The sprawling Bloomington mall – home to 520 retailers, 60 restaurants and several entertainment attractions – has a lot riding on the answer to that question.
The nation’s biggest mall is fighting signs of middle age and questions about whether it has lost its luster as a regional and global attraction.
“The next stage needs to be sparkling,” said John Johannson, senior vice president of retail services for Welsh Cos.
Mall owners hope to embark on a $1 billion-plus expansion next spring that they say will complement the existing 4.2 million-square-foot complex and pump it up as an entertainment destination.
The plan, including the all-important financing, remains in flux.
The latest elements include upscale retail shops, a 6,000-seat performing arts center, three hotels, an office complex and space for touring museum exhibits. Gone is some of the glitz officials touted briefly last year as they attempted to tie the project to a proposed casino, a bid that evaporated when state lawmakers nixed expanded gambling.
The anticipated groundbreaking would come after years of legal wrangling between the Ghermezian family of Canada and Simon Property Group over who is majority owner (the Ghermezians won that battle) and nearly two years after Ikea of Sweden opened a 336,000-square-foot store as the first anchor for what’s commonly referred to as Phase 2.
For many, the state of the megamall is a mixed bag.
On one hand, the mall gets high marks from industry players for keeping its mix of tenants fresh, deftly folding in new stores from a 10 percent average annual turnover. With 93 percent of its rental space occupied, the mall this year has brought in more than 20 new tenants, including Dinosaur Walk, Wolfgang Puck Express and Swedish apparel retailer H&M.
The Mall of America has “evolved as one of the locations in the nation where retailers will try new concepts,” said Jim McComb, a Minneapolis retail consultant. For example, Build-A-Bear Workshop recently launched its friends 2B made concept there.
Nicole Charboneau of Woodbury said variety is a key reason she shops at the mall at least once every three or four months.
She is in the mall’s tally of 40million visitors per year. About one-third of those come from out of state, the mall says, accounting for half the mall’s annual business.
A number of major retailers – the Limited, Gap and American Eagle among them – count their mall stores among their top performers and have expanded their presence by taking more space or adding other concepts.
Still, the Mall of America has not been a blockbuster for everyone.
“Some food players are struggling in the food court,” said Tim Bloom, vice president of retail services at CB Richard Ellis, although he wouldn’t identify which ones.
Meanwhile, the 14-screen movie theater is no longer the star attraction in town, said Richard Grones, founding principal at Cambridge Commercial Realty in Edina. The introduction of other theaters, with stadium seating, “has taken away from the level of patronage” at the mall theater, he said.
And it’s lonely up on the mall’s fourth floor, once home to Planet Hollywood and other nightclubs that vied to become the premiere nightspots in the Twin Cities. Now, a Hooters restaurant is the lone tenant.
