The Oldest Indoor Shopping Mall In America Is A Midwest Gem Getting A Luxury Makeover

It's hard to imagine a time when there weren't malls. But when the Southdale Shopping Center opened in 1956 in Edina, Minnesota, it was the very first indoor mall in the country. When it first opened, the center had 72 stores, free parking, and a whopping 5,000 parking spots. Looking at photos, it looks a lot like the malls that came to follow it. Nearly 70 years later, the mall now has over 85 stores, and its aesthetic has evolved over time. Now it's getting another whole new look with a massive $400 million luxury makeover courtesy of its owner, Simon Property Group. 

"Simon is revolutionizing today's retail landscape with the strategic transformation of key properties across the country into best-in-class lifestyle destinations," Jonathan Murphy, co-president of Simon's Mall Platform, said in a statement via KSTP. "Southdale's iconic status as the country's first enclosed shopping center makes it a unique gem within our portfolio and a prioritized target for creating an elevated offering." Renovations began in late 2023. 

Murphy added that the company wants Southdale to be elevated to the level of some of its other properties, like The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas. Southdale's renovations should be complete by early 2025. Located in the suburbs of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), a shopping spree at Southdale would be the perfect start to a tropical vacay with one of the nonstop flights from Minneapolis to the Caribbean.

Featured image by Gephart via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0

For historic places like the oldest amusement park in the country, changing with the times is paramount to survival. Southdale Center is no different. Because of online shopping, a lot of malls have fallen in the last few decades. According to Business Insider, there were as many as 2,500 malls nationwide in the 1980s but only about 700 left by 2022. That said, malls aren't necessarily dying — they're just changing. Per The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Southdale Center renovations are following a trend — focusing on high-end retailers that offer big-ticket purchases that require less foot traffic to drive sales. Simon Property Group chief executive David Simon told the WSJ that even old malls have an important place in the world because they have "longevity and staying power."

The outlet reports that part of Southdale's plan is to add five new retail spaces to the mall. These stores will have their own separate entrances, valet parking, and walkway. There will be over 20 high-end stores in a revitalized "luxury wing" section of the mall. Some of these retailers include Gucci, Max Mara, Lululemon, and Coach. Even with all of the fancy new additions and designer stores, the mall isn't leaving behind its past. Sure, the colors are changing, but a piece of its history is coming back, too. When the mall first opened, it featured a sculpture called "The Acrobats." It's been sitting around in storage and will be getting its own place in the mall.

In its lifetime, Southdale Center has had a lot of owners. Its current one, Simon Property Group, bought the mall in 2007 with big plans to reinvigorate it. Yet, its journey into the not-so-new millennium began years later. Its biggest additions weren't even related to the mall at all. For instance, kitty-corner from the mall in a former parking lot area, the group created a luxury apartment building called One Southdale Place. 

General manager of Southdale Center Judy Tullius told the Star Tribune in 2019 that these additions were part of a plan to transform the mall into a "mixed-use lifestyle" experience instead of just retail. That's also why a three-story Life Time Fitness took the place of a former J.C. Penney. This massive complex even includes a spa and a rooftop beach club. Because of this lifestyle-focused development, you could even spend your vacation right by the mall at the adjacent Homewood Suites by Hilton. It's a perfect spot to jumpstart a road trip up to one of the most gorgeous waterfalls in the country (Wolf Creek Falls) — which is only 90 minutes north of Edina.