Everything about Southdale Center totally explained
Southdale Center, commonly known as just
Southdale, is a shopping center in
Edina, a suburb of
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Today in 2008, the original Southdale building is still in use, as well as later additions to the building. Three similarly-named shopping centers were also opened in the Twin Cities area:
Brookdale Center (opened 1962) in
Brooklyn Center,
Rosedale Center (opened 1969) in
Roseville, and
Ridgedale Center (opened 1974) in
Minnetonka.
Southdale was developed by Dayton Department Stores and designed by
Victor Gruen, an Austrian
immigrant. Gruen was a European style socialist; he hated the suburban lifestyle of 1950s America, and wanted to design a building that would bring people together into a community, by providing a meeting place that American towns lacked. They would come together to shop, drink coffee, and socialize. He modeled Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the center of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a 463 acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale, in Gruen's opinion, wasn't a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you'd get if you started over and corrected all the mistakes that were made the first time around. Gruen planned for an atmosphere of leisure, excitement, and intimacy to be created. To achieve this he placed works of
art, decorative lighting,
fountains, tropical plants, and
flowers throughout the mall.
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place on
October 29,
1954. 800 construction workers were needed to construct the 4-story, 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants. The mall was developed by the Dayton Company, owners of Dayton's department store in Minneapolis and predecessor to the
Target Corporation. A branch of
Dayton's would anchor the mall along with
Donaldson's,
Walgreens Pharmacy and
Woolworth.
It was envisioned that Southdale would become the central gathering place not only for the residents of the city of Edina, but also for the greater
Twin Cities area. Southdale was designed from the viewpoint of the future. The creators of the center understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety; as a result, the mall was designed to provide many useful services all under one roof. These services included everything from a
Post Office, to a
grocery store, to an upscale apparel store and even a small
zoo. Other intentions would take hold, though, and the construction of the
IDS Center and its attached Crystal Court would shift attention back to downtown Minneapolis.
Over the years, Southdale has hosted gem, boat, and fine art shows, and also served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was the host-site for an episode of the popular
game show Truth or Consequences. However, the full scale of the original plan was never realized. There were no parks or schools or apartment buildings - just a big box in a sea of parking. With a few exceptions, no one else planned a shopping mall as the centerpiece of a tidy, dense, multi-use development.
Besides being completely climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing
department stores under the same roof.
Southdale Today
Southdale Center boast close to of space throughout the original building and later additions.
Dayton's original store was gutted in 1991 and turned into more mall space, as a new Dayton's was added. It would convert to
Marshall Field's in 2001, and to
Macy's in 2006.
Donaldson's later housed a
Carson Pirie Scott, then a
Mervyns; this space, spanning . on four levels, is now vacant after
Mervyns closed in 2004 and was acquired by the mall for future redevelopment.
In 2002, Southdale Center took on a new look with the completion of two projects:
Trendz On Top, an area for the younger shopper, and
The District on France comprises retail, entertainment, and dining.
Southdale’s anchor tenants include
AMC Theatres,
JCPenney,
Macy's, and
Marshalls.
Anchors and Majors
- AMC (80,927 sq ft.)
- JCPenney (247,902 sq ft.)
- Macy's (359,679 sq ft. total, Macy's - ., Macy's Petites - ., Macy's Women's World - 7,587 sq ft.)
- Marshalls (44,925 sq ft.)
Further Information
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