 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Shopping Centers Today -> May 2002
 PRINT THIS STORY: |
  CHANGE TEXT SIZE: |
|
BIGGER AND BIGGER
More retail, hotels and offices in the works
By Debra Hazel
 |
| Simon says it hopes to begin work next year on a massive expansion that includes 700,000 square feet of lifestyle retail. |
Even before Triple Five Group and Melvin Simon & Associates opened Mall of America in 1992, the companies were planning to expand the 4.2 million-square-foot behemoth. They even incorporated the steelwork necessary to accommodate a pedestrian bridge that would link it to a future expansion.
Current plans call for up to 150,000 square feet of office space, two or three hotels providing up to 1,000 rooms and up to 700,000 square feet of lifestyle retail, including concepts not already in the market — perhaps a day spa, for instance. The new building will connect to the mall by means of a pedestrian bridge on the center’s second level, between Sears and Nordstrom.
The retail mix will continue Mall of America’s tradition of unconventional tenant combinations, said Arthur Spellmeyer, senior vice president of development at Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, as Melvin Simon & Associates is now known.
“Keep in mind, way back when, when we were merchandising Mall of America, it was the first time that you had big boxes, traditional mall retailers and entertainment all together in a coordinated way,” he said.
 |
Yet work won’t begin on the next phase of Mall of America until next year, at the earliest, delayed by a complex land swap. Mall of America’s developers originally had rights to 33 acres east of the existing mall, but that tract sits in the proposed flight path from an expanded Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, just 1.5 miles away. So the mall exchanged it for 54 acres north of the existing center controlled by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, recalled Spellmeyer.
Negotiations were complicated, involving federal, state and local authorities, and the deal was not completed until December 2001. Expansion plans are thus still somewhat tentative, though Simon hopes that construction will begin in 2003 for a 2004 first-phase opening.
“These things don’t happen overnight,” Spellmeyer said.
Even with the swap, however, the new site, too, has limitations; it is still within the airport’s flight path, which limits building height.
Simon looked at several alternatives for the expansion before settling on the current plan. One early idea called for a high-tech showplace and communications center called Hyperport that would have displayed the latest in systems and products by such companies as Microsoft, Oracle and Sony. That concept eventually faded away, Spellmeyer said, replaced by the latest lifestyle-oriented concept.
“We want to put in complementary, not competitive elements,” to the existing mall, he said.
Teachers Insurance and Annuity and Triple Five, Simon’s partners in Mall of America, are investors in the expansion as well. Despite the lengthy negotiations, Spellmeyer said, building the second phase of the megamall should be far easier than the first.
“When Mall of America went up, no one believed it would happen; everyone has totally forgotten that,” he said. “Now they know Mall of America is a tremendous success. We created an icon and that makes it easier to execute phase two.”
 | Current Issue March 2010 |