Mall of America - Bloomington

[Aville_37]

I know the Mall brings in a lot of tourists and generates tax dollars as well as spill over revenue to other attractions in the Twin Cities, with the exception of a few stores not found anywhere else in MN - I hate the Mall and wish it was never built.

[Didier]

I will be interested to see if the renovations address the exterior at all, or if they will bring in more natural light. Inside the mall is generally pretty nice, but the area immediately around the mall is generally pretty unpleasant and the large cement walls and parking structures do little to soften the exterior. That's one of the reasons I like the Radison Blue.

In regards to the interior, I would think the mall, particularly the restaurants, could benefit by having nice outdoor space or natural light. There are some decent restaurants in there now, many with "patios," but the connection is to indoor corridors or Camp Snoopy.

[Chauncey87]

Already Giant Mall of America Plans to Expand

Minnesota's Mall of America is known for its size. Now, it's expanding.

The more than $2 billion project could last 10 years, expanding the mall by up to 5.6 million square feet. The project was pushed along by a $250 million tax break approved by the legislature this spring.

"In my mind it's going to be a project that is approximately twice as big as what we have today. Although it's not two Mall of Americas, it's going to be new uses, uses that are either don't exist today at Mall of America or are under-served at Mall of America," said Kurt Hagen, Senior Vice President of Development at Triple Five Worldwide.


http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3086693.shtml?cat=1

Well I guess this is going to be really really big!

[LRV Op Dude]

Mall of America expansion plans call for water park, ice rink, hotels

[FISHMANPET]

Interesting that they're looking for another anchor department store.

[Andrew_F]

That long concourse makes me a little worried. While the attractions on the north end should draw people up there, being a dead-end while the rest of the main concourses form a loop, they will need to do something to make it not feel like an elongated Eden Prairie Center.

[Wedgeguy]

They just lost a department store, is Harrod's of London expanding as I have not other department store I know of that people would come to just to shop? I know I was wrong about the MOA being a white elephant. It was far from. So I'll hold judgement on how well they can make this Phase work. I just see the retail addition as the odd trails off in Southdale that people rarely seem to go down unless they came in that way.

[min-chi-cbus]

So again, I'm consfused......how does this $2+ billion expansion work together with the $250 million expansion they are currently planning on doing? Are both occurring, or is it one or the other?

Whatever they do, if the closest thing to I-494 is the parking garage they have to make a much bigger concerted effort to ensure that whatever faces the freeway/airport has MUCH better signage so it's easier to see and more "picturesque" than the current design, which is tucked behind some shoddy buildings and a vacant parking lot. Every major tourist attraction in the world has a grand entry it seems! Also, I honestly hope they come up with something different than an ice rink and water park. I'm okay with the water park but we can't copy West Edmonton.....we need something iconic and novel (no genius ideas yet).

[Andrew_F]

So again, I'm consfused......how does this $2+ billion expansion work together with the $250 million expansion they are currently planning on doing? Are both occurring, or is it one or the other?

Look at the graphic on the last page. It indicates "Phase 1C" and "Phase 2". The article also mentions how "Phase 2" will likely be broken down into several separate phases spread out over up to ten years.

[Chauncey87]

Interesting that they're looking for another anchor department store.

I am pretty sure they are talking about the Bass Pro Shops. They have been pretty much the only major store that will eat up enough space to be considered department store size. They do not have a location in MN or for that mater the whole of the upper Midwest and really want to expand into this market. I also wish for something better then an ice rink at the north end. However Millions of shoppers who would be shopping here would have came from places that do not have access to frozen lakes and tons of indoor ice sheets like we have. So I could see this being a draw. Also it would be a really fun place to watch ice shows during your shopping. Yes I want to see Star Wars on Ice. No I do not think that is a real thing.

[mulad]

The diagram shows both a "Dept. Store" and a Bass Pro Shop.

[min-chi-cbus]

Star Wars on Ice?!?!

I can just see it now.......Chewy skating gracefully in circles around the arena while Han Solo chases him around yelling "Chewyyyyyyy!". I think you're on to something there Chauncey! Lemme know if you want to get this bad boy started up and I'll go halvesies on it with you.

Snaping back to reality for a moment.......I'm against the ice rink (and water park, or conference center, etc.) because all of those things are becoming almost cliche "big mall" must-haves, and I always thought of the MOA as sort of the pioneer of most of this stuff (even though it came after West Edmonton). I'd PREFER to see more innovation and creativity from this development, and something that people just can't a.) get anywhere else, and b.) easily recreate. Again, I don't have lots of $billion ideas running around in my head (except writing Star Wars on Ice, obviously ) but I'm hoping somebody tries to think a bit more outside the box on this.

[Chauncey87]

The diagram shows both a "Dept. Store" and a Bass Pro Shop.

To right I should have looked closer.

Min-chi-cbus I saw the idea from an episode of Robot Chicken. It was only a short clip meaning there is still a lot of story left to make it one of the best ice shows ever. Even better then dare I say Disney on Ice?

clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHw0-6SqecI

Back ot I just wish they go full on hard core with this and make it the largest in the world. Also if ice rinks are old news then how about we try and get one of these?

The Dubai Mall Aquarium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KHGr4JtiR8

[JMS9]

Girlfriend and I went to the aquarium on Tuesday. It was fun and all, but holy shit...talk about bending you over the counter. It cost $46 for the two of us and we barely lasted an hour. Compare that to a few weeks ago when $47 got us into the MNZoo and a long, enjoyable 4 hour stay. If you're going to charge as much (more, actually!) as the Minnesota Zoo, you should strive to keep people there at least as long.

So, yeah....go big like Dubai. If I'm going to drop nearly $50 you should be able to keep me there for two hours or more with sites and exhibits. Just sayin'.....

[emcee squared]

I don't know, Dubai was even more expensive and lasted even less.

[Nathan]

Here's something for them to ponder...

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/10/worlds ... gdu-china/

[Andrew_F]

This is the first 1C render I've run across since Mayo pulled out and they flipped the hotel and office locations around:

[min-chi-cbus]

Cool! So I take it this is part of the $250M expansion portion (as opposed to the $2B+ portion)? What does it say on the hotel -- "Hotel Riel"? Is that a name of a branch of hotels that I'm unaware of? And the office building appears to say "International Dentists". I don't know where they come up with those random names if they are not in fact the names of the occupants of each building.

[minnyapple]

JLL starts marketing Mall of America office space

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... eting.html

From the article "There are no tenants yet and it won't be built until one tenant or more sign on. With pre-leasing just getting under way, JLL expects the building will open in late 2015 or early 2016. Buildings this size typically take about a 12 to 18 months to construct."

[contrast]

For JMS9 et al- (reading everyone's posts back to June, so my post is a mix... sorry)

For Sea Life tickets- they have an on-line pass for MN residents only. $11 for adults and $10 for kids. Must buy online and show MN drivers license on arrival.

I like the concept/look of the new hotel and office- finally some glass that will hide the hideous blank dept. store walls (at least until another massive parking ramp is built (bleh). Even though the waterpark is not unique, I could see it being quite successful if it is substantial and would serve as another family complement to Nic U (don't know how to spell it). I think Bass Pro shop is a great add to the retail mix and would be quite successful for the reasons they describe- male/outdoorsy demographic, but the ice rink- would not increase revenue or interest at all.

I don't like shopping and really don't like malls, but on the rare occasion we go to MOA, it is obvious that huge numbers of people do enjoy shopping and they don't care that the place is a big ugly façade with the sole purpose of excessive consumption. If Triple 5 thinks they can pull off a massive addition then they should go for it.

The size of the public subsidy (beyond infrastructure improvements) seems crazy to me, but the existing MOA Holdings LLC, per the Hennepin County CAFR, has the highest single tax capacity in the county at $11 million- nearly 3 times bigger than the next highest property holder. So what ever happens here is a big deal for everyone.

http://alturl.com/cit6b (see Statistical Section, table 11)