Since their birth, malls have re-invented shopping in the United States by keeping retail thriving for so many years. Almost 69 years ago, right here in the Twin Cities outer suburbs, Southdale Mall in Edina was the first modern style mall to open its doors to the United States. As malls began their widespread expansion across the nation, they brought along great opportunities for both businesses and consumers. The Eden Prairie Center has been the spotlight of economic activity throughout the city since its opening in 1976. The mall now hosts over 100 shops and restaurants, catering to over 7 million customers a year. But despite the mall’s triumphs and successes, it also endures challenges in the face of online shopping.
Many malls were unable to survive through the rise of online shopping, facing an extremely large drop in customers that made it almost impossible for businesses to overcome. In fact, economists predict that approximately 87% of large-scale malls may close within the next decade. The Eden Prairie Center, like many other malls of its style, is taking steps to expand itself beyond its brick and mortar roots in order to appeal to the new market of customers. Eden Prairie’s Economic Development Manager, David Lindahl, explained how the mall plans to change its style to continue to thrive.
“We’re very much aware that malls across the country are struggling because of online sales, so there’s less need for brick and mortar stores,” Lindahl shared. “And that’s why our mall has some challenges as do many other malls around the country.” Lindahl’s role as the city’s Economic Development Manager is to navigate the city’s real estate processes and oversee leasing. Seeing as his role focuses on Eden Prairie from an economic lens, he details that the mall is Eden Prairie’s most important aspect in that light.
“Overall, the mall provides about 23,100 jobs. So it’s a big employer,” Lindahl explained. Furthering this, he detailed the mall’s impact on the local economy. “The traffic that’s drawn to the mall benefits other businesses around it too sometimes. Like, if you come from outstate to visit Scheels, you might want to stay at a hotel down the road. You may go use the local gas stations, you may stop at Chick-Fil-A, or do something else. So overall, it’s an important asset to the city.”
The Eden Prairie Center’s importance in the city and surrounding areas explains why keeping it alive is such a necessity. In order for the mall to remain thriving in the face of a new consumer base, it must make some changes, which Lindahl addressed clearly. The new plan for the mall has been designed by its development company which aims to repurpose unused areas in the establishment.
“We have recommended other uses that might have a synergistic relationship with retail, but are not retail,” Lindahl started. “The current developer is working with the owners to consider developing a major portion of the mall, from JCPenney’s on the north end of the mall, carving out all the way to the center court, where Old Navy is, and that whole area would be demoed.”
This plan has been typically referred to as “Aspire 2040” with a goal of repurposing the mall in a way that will allow it to overcome the challenges that it is currently facing. These challenges can be mainly described as the difficulty that businesses have had attracting customers. Llana Rojas, a small business owner leasing space in the Eden Prairie Center, touched on the struggles of operating out of it.
“Stores in the mall tend to change pretty quickly because of the slower traffic that the EP (Eden Prairie) Center has, so small businesses do not tend to last that long. They’re constantly shutting down and getting new businesses in.” Rojas shared. Rojas is the CEO of jewelry and athletic clothing business, Let’s Roar. The company has been operating out of the mall since September of 2023– however, it started as an online store rather than an in person one, and now operates as both. Rojas’ perspective on retail is unique because she is well acquainted with the brick and mortar side as well as the web side of shopping. On the differences, she shared that both sides of the coin have their respectives strengths and weaknesses.
“For online,” she shared, “if you market it right, you can get sales all around the world versus just one spot. I think that’s where the main appeal for online shopping comes from. Online’s fairly easy– all you have to deal with is inventory and shipping stuff.” In contrast to her online store, Rojas deals with many different issues facing her in person business. “If you’re operating out of the mall, you have a contract where you have to be open all the hours that the mall is open, you have to change decorations based on seasons and holidays, you have to deal with theft, employees calling off, rent, and more. There’s just a lot of things that you always have to be updating that you don’t really see in the online world.”
Many of the issues that small businesses in the Eden Prairie Center face stem from the slower traffic that it has been facing in recent years, and even though economists assume that this is mostly due to online shopping, there are truly a multitude of reasons for downfalls in any industry. Eden Prairie Center’s General Manager, Nancy Litwin, elaborated on the up-and-down roller coaster that is business.
“It is not uncommon to go through several changes as leases expire, or as retailers make changes. However, in some recent cases, there have been nationwide bankruptcies that have made some impacts, which is not uncommon in the retail industry,” Litwin explained. “With changes in retail concepts, that brings opportunities for change to us as well.” The mall has been updating itself at a quick rate in recent years, bringing in 13 new tenants within 2 years. These new businesses consist of Wonders Ice Cream, Reborn Salon, Virtual Realm Adventures, Costumes and Toys, Cielito Lindo, Gaiyumai Japanese Barbecue, Ishidou Ramen, Miniso, Game Show Studio, Pheonix Salon Suites, 3D Maker’s Den, US Army Career Center, and Northwoods Boutique.
One of the key factors in determining the success of any malls is the tenant selection process, which Litwin and her team oversee for the Eden Prairie Center. “I work with people that are responsible for the permanent leasing placements. So we have on-site specialty leasing managers and administrators who work on all of that leasing,” Litwin shared. “We’re always listening to our customers, and we do ongoing research to better understand what’s currently successful in terms of merchandise, and or services or food and entertainment at the shopping center. So trying to fill voids that we might have, but also filling those needs where we know we currently have success.”
A lot of thought has been placed into the tenants being selected to operate out of the mall in order to keep it sustained through tough times for retail. The “Aspire 2040” plan touched on by Lindahl hopes to allow the mall to continue to thrive even in this new environment. “They don’t need that much retail, and when I say that, I’m not talking about department stores, like Scheels, Kohl’s, Target, and Von Maur are all separately owned– but everything else, the theaters all the way through everything in the mall is struggling more. So the bottom line is that this is more retail than we need,” Lindahl explained. “So this plan would take a lot of that old retail and redevelop it into other uses.”
Business owners operating out of the mall whose stores would be demolished due to the Aspire 2040 plan would hopefully be relocated to other areas of the mall. Rojas’ Let’s Roar business would remain in its current position, but other businesses such as Old Navy and DSW would be forced to relocate. Despite some of its negative effects, Lindahl’s perspective shows that this plan is what the mall needs if it wants to survive in the modern market. Different industries undergo new challenges every day, and it is the job of people like Lindahl, Rojas, and Litwin to adapt to these changes and make sure that their businesses can succeed in new environments.
The retail industry is transforming, and many aspects of that involve leaving brick and mortar stores behind and moving into a massive expansion of online retail. In the next few decades, consumers will watch as malls either adapt to these new markets, or if they will be forced to close their doors due to a lack of customer traffic. The Eden Prairie Center is determined to adapt, and seeing it come to life in a new market will prove its success as a business and as the heart of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
