West 66th Street and France Avenue South
Edina, Minnesota
With his NORTHLAND CENTER project in suburban Detroit under construction, master mall architect Victor Gruen was on a roll. In 1952, he was commissioned by Minneapolis' Dayton Company to design a retail complex for the Twin Cities. The prospective center was to be built on an 82 acre tract, 8 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis, in the Village of Edina. The land parcel had been part of the Robinson-Day Farm.
SOUTHDALE CENTER was to be a revolutionary retail complex. Whereas stores in contemporary shopping centers faced outward, toward the parking lot, most in SOUTHDALE would face inward. There would be little exterior signage defining individual stores.
Freight would be brought into the center via an underground "truck road" tunnel. From an adjacent basement, stock would be taken to stores through a system of six "core" elevators. All of this would be completely out of sight of the shopping center's patrons. SOUTHDALE was modeled on the concept of a European city center. It would serve as a suburban place for shopping and socializing...specially adapted to fit America's emerging car culture.
Ground was broken at the site on October 29, 1954. On October 8, 1956, America's first regional-class, fully-enclosed shopping mall opened for business. The 20 million dollar, 810,000 square foot, structure was centered around a 3-story, 100-foot-wide, Garden Court, which had tropical landscaping, sculpture, a fountain pool, Sidewalk Cafe and 45-foot-high bird aviary.
There were two main retail floors, as well as a small Basement Concourse. This area contained a post office, mall office, public restrooms and Children's Center. The split-level parking area surrounding the complex was named for animals, such as "Alligator", "Rooster", "Fox" and the like; this done to make it easier for shoppers to remember how to get back to cars parked somewhere in the 5,200 spaces provided.
Anchoring SOUTHDALE CENTER were a 3-level (195,000 square foot), Minneapolis-based Dayton Company and 3-level (140,000 square foot), Minneapolis-based L.S. Donaldson. The latter was designed by Seattle's John Graham, Junior.
The initial tenant list of sixty-two included Walgreen Drug, Baker's Qualicraft Shoes, Marshall Wells Hardware, Edina Liquors, Buttrey's ladies' wear, Richman Brothers men's wear, an F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 and Red Owl supermarket. There were eventually seventy-five tenants spaces. Outparcels of the original mall were a Dayton's Garden Shop and Pure Oil Company and Western Oil & Fuel Company filling stations.
The first expansion at SOUTHDALE CENTER added a third floor (or fourth level) to Dayton''s, enlarging the store to 255,000 square feet. This project was completed in 1963. Minnesota's first twin movie theater, the General Cinema Corporation Southdale I & II, opened on September 21, 1966.
The 1,950 seat venue was built, as a freestanding structure, in the southeastern periphery of the mall. It was renovated into the Southdale I-II-III in 1975 and became the Southdale I-II-III-IV in 1980. The theater was shuttered August 16, 1990 and demolished soon after.
The first major expansion of SOUTHDALE CENTER added a Gallery Court wing to the northeast side of the complex. Thirty-three stores joined the directory on October 7, 1971. These included J. Riggings, Milton's, Spencer Gifts, Wrangler Wroost and a Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio. The addition was anchored by a 4-level (247,000 square foot) J.C. Penney, which opened for business on March 1, 1972.
Retail rivals of SOUTHDALE included KNOLLWOOD MALL (1972) {4.6 miles northwest, in St. Louis Park} and EDEN PRAIRIE CENTER (1976) {4.8 miles southwest, in Eden Prairie}. GALLERIA EDINA, situated adjacent to the south side of the SOUTHDALE site, started out in 1959 as a freestanding furniture store. This was expanded into an enclosed shopping center in 1974.
Fearing major competition from MALL OF AMERICA, which was being built only 4.3 miles southeast, the owners of SOUTHDALE embarked on another expansion in 1989. This began with the construction of a new 4-level (359,600 square foot) Dayton's. Added to the northwest side of the existing mall, it was connected with two new parking garages. The original Dayton's closed August 7, 1990, with the new location being launched on August 9th.
The old Dayton's structure was subdivided into sixty inline stores. These included Petits, The Body Shop and an 11-bay Food Court. The Garden Court was also doubled in size. Tenants in the old Dayton's began opening in July 1991, with store dedications continuing into the following year. In November 1993, a (44,900 square foot) Marshalls opened in the basement of the complex.
Work on the next expansion of SOUTHDALE CENTER got underway in January 2001. The southeast corner of the complex was enlarged. A new multiplex, the MegaStar Cinemas Southdale Center 16, showed its first features on November 9, 2001.
At the same time, The District On France, an adjacent streetscape of sit-down restaurants, debuted with P.F. Chang's China Bistro. This eatery was followed by The Cheesecake Factory (May 2002), California Pizza Kitchen (July 2002) and Maggiano's Little Italy (November 2002).
A section of teen-oriented shoppes, Trendz On Top, was installed in Third Level space of the old Dayton's. These modifications increased the leasable square footage at SOUTHDALE to approximately 1,339,000, with space for 158 stores and services.
The Dayton's store morphed into a Marshall Field's in August 2001 and was "Macy-ated" September 9, 2006. Donaldson's was rebranded a Chicago-based Carson Pirie Scott August 10, 1988 and Hayward, California-based Mervyn's July 29, 1995. This store was shuttered in July 2004. The MegaStar multiplex was rebranded, as the American Multi-Cinema Southdale 16, in early 2004.
The Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group assumed ownership of SOUTHDALE CENTER in April 2007. The company, in a joint venture with San Francisco-based Farallon Capital Management, acquired the Arlington, Virginia-based Mills Corporation. SOUTHDALE had been a Mills property since January 2005.
An indoor-outdoor face lift was done at SOUTHDALE between December 2011 and December 2012. The 32 million dollar project altered the Gallery Court wing, creating a more direct link between the Penney's store and Garden Court.
Moreover, a 10-bay (Second Level) Food Court was created in front of J.C. Penney. Lastly, new restrooms, lighting, landscaping, and a children's play area were installed and all mall entrances were rebuilt.
Accompanying these improvements was a new anchor for SOUTHDALE CENTER. Minnesota-based Herberger's was signed for 135,000 square feet of the 179,000 square foot Donaldson's-Carson's-Mervyn's building. This new anchor opened for business on November 9, 2011, but closed for good in August 2018.
Marshalls pulled up stakes in 2013. The vacant space was filled by an Omaha-based Gordmans off-price department store, which began business on July 16, 2015. The mall's old Food Court, and adjoining Third Level space, was reconfigured as a (41,500 square foot) Dave & Buster's Grand Sports Cafe. It welcomed its first patrons on August 3, 2015. The Gordman's store proved to be short-lived. It went dark in 2017.
J.C. Penney shuttered their circa-1972 store on July 31st of the same year. It was demolished and replaced by a 2-building LifeTime Athletic facility. The 3-level (120,000 square foot) structure housed a fitness center, spa, cafe, kids activity center and rooftop swimming pool. An adjacent 3-level (60,000 square foot) building included an "indoor turf facility", small section of retail and a floor of leased office suites. The complex opened for business on December 3, 2019.
As for the vacant Herberger's, its first level was reconfigured as a (34,000 square foot), Woodbury, Minnesota-based Kowalski's. This supermarket welcomed first shoppers in September 2024. It harkened back to the Red Owl supermarket that had operated in the SOUTHDALE mall for 17 years.
Sources:
The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
preservenet.cornell.edu/publications/Longstreth Branch Store.doc
Dayton Hudson Corporation Annual Report 1972
www.cinematreasures.org
Southdale Tenant List / Press Release / Ruder & Finn, Inc. / October 7, 1956
www.southdale.com
Universal Productions Southdale Prospectus / Press Release / Ruder & Finn Inc. / October 7, 1956
About Town: The Official Magazine of The City of Edina / Winter 2007 / "Southdale Started A Revolution 50 Years Ago" / Joe Sullivan
http://www.southdalecenter.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://rsparch.com (RSP Architects)
FAIR USE OF SOUTHDALE CENTER IMAGES:
The images from The Minnesota Historical Society illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The images are of lower resolution than the originals (copies made would be of inferior quality). The images are not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the images does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute the images in any way. The images are being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and their use is not believed to detract from the original images in any way.
