The sad fate of Southdale
First we read that Southdale current owner Mills Corp is warning of possible bankruptcy. Apparently their accounting errors might cost as much as $352million. How does that happen?
Worse news. Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has agreed to buy struggling real-estate firm The Mills Corp., which owns Southdale Mall in Edina, for $7.55 billion. Why is that bad you ask. Well Brookfield owns City Center and Gaviidae. Why is that bad? Common! Not that City Center has ever been a mecca (at least in my lifetime) of shopping. In fact its always had a mismanaged feel to me. I worked in the mall in 1989 for a little known shoe store Georgio Bruttini. Brings back memories. Now City Center feels more like a giant skyway (or skyway hub as it were), what a waste of space.
Gaviidae was the sexiest retail space Minneapolis has ever seen. When it opened it was tres chic. Movies were filmed there. Mighty Ducks (1 or 2, or 3, I dont recall), Drop Dead Fred, who knows what else. Now Gaviidae is a place to do banking, look for a job, eat at a food court, and lastly… a little retail/shopping.
Southdale today is better than I ever remember. The sort of dead zone between the main mall and the new theater has always been a dead zone. Remember ye old Taco Bell right about where California Pizza Kitchen was? I do. Yikes! Why in the world did B Dalton give up the space where the Apple Store is? Overall though, its a better mall than its ever been. Please o Please Brookfield, sell it to someone else, we dont need another ghost mall.
Drop Dead Fred! That was Phoebe Cates’s downward spiral film. Well…I guess Gremlins 3, The New Batch was.
Anyway, the “Mall” concept has had interesting life span. But did you know that Southdale the first completely climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States?
Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen, an Austrian emigrant who moved to the United States. 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. It was never his intention to design what some consider an icon of capitalism. He modeled the design of 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 development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale, in Gruen’s opinion, was not a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you would 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 center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants. The mall was originally 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.
When Southdale opened, it became a gathering place for area residents, just as was envisioned. Over the years, Southdale hosted gem, boat, and fine art shows, and also served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even 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.
Southdale was the site for many shopping mall firsts. Besides being completely climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing department stores under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls.
With that said, perhaps they should just go back to the original drawing board for inspiration and develop apartment buildings on or within the premises. That way, you’ll save money on gas to replace your broken glassware at Crate & Barrel.
In the English language, we know 2 negatives make a positive. And that could be a good thing. In this case, it’s like a meteor ready to struck any minute. Well, Wall Street analysts think the sale is definitely overpriced. Hmmmm…
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/brookfield-acquire-struggling-reit-mills/story.aspx?guid=%7B97FB3875%2DA538%2D4D1C%2D8363%2DC75679E22CBC%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo