If malls are dying, Burnsville Center is the closest to the grave in the Twin Cities.
For years, store closings at the center have continued to climb, earning it the unhappy distinction of being the region's emptiest major mall.
But now, multiple efforts are underway to revive Burnsville Center just as waning pandemic cases raise the prospect for a revival of in-person shopping more broadly.
"We want to fill the mall. That's the goal here," said Felix Reznick, a principal at 4th Dimension Properties, a co-owner of the mall.
The city of Burnsville, along the southern edge of the Twin Cities metro region, is working on improving road access to the mall. A new food hall and an Asian grocery store are in the works.
The ownership group has removed some of the carpeting in the mall and put in tile. More renovations will come as the mall generates income, Reznick said. He said the owners will seek out many types of tenants, including local businesses, galleries and even radio stations.
"I'm open to all sorts of different uses here even if it's an office use," Reznick said. "I want to bring more foot traffic in."
In the middle of the week at lunchtime, Burnsville Center seems to attract more walkers than shoppers. Whole corners of the mall are completely empty.
Still, Macy's, JCPenney and Dick's Sporting Goods anchor the mall. And restaurants on the outskirts are busy. Lucky's 13 Pub was near capacity with hungry lunchgoers one recent weekday.
Some businesses have used the vacancies at Burnsville Center as opportunities.
Rodney Knight doubled the size and reopened an unused miniature golf course off the food court. It features several black-light holes and a mini arcade.
"What I'm doing in the mall is an experimentation. ... It's nothing fancy, but it's cheap family fun," said Knight, who operates smaller courses at Rosedale and Southdale centers.
After more than 30 years at the mall, toys and game store Games by James closed its Burnsville Center location in late February.
As he returned his store keys last week, Games by James owner Logan McKee said it was a tough decision to close. The store had its best sales ever last year and McKee liked the mall's local managers.
But he needed to reallocate workers and the inventory to other locations, and he didn't feel like the new ownership had done much to improve the interior of the mall.
"In my opinion, they have not reinvested in the property," McKee said. He said Games by James may return to the Burnsville Center if things change.
New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group purchased the majority stake in Burnsville Center in auction for about $17 million in late 2020. In the past, the Kohan group has been accused of letting other malls it owned languish and fall under disrepair.
Earlier this year, Kohan sold a portion of the mall — including the space occupied by Dick's Sporting Goods, Noodles & Co. and home decor store Kirkland's — for about $10.6 million to Pacific Square USA, an investment firm. All of the current tenants will remain.
In space once occupied by a Gordman's department store, Pacific Square USA plans to open a 50,000-square-foot Asian grocery store called Enson Market. The group also has plans for an Asian-themed food hall.
Construction is likely to be completed mid-to-late 2023. The project is the brainchild of Eddie Ni, chairman of Chicago-area based the Windfall Group and Pacific Square; Marshall Nguyen, vice president of Twin Cities-based Caspian Group commercial real estate company; and their local partners.
"The more good business and new deals we conduct, we hope it will build more confidence in the market and the people," Nguyen said.
Separately, Nguyen is leading a group that is redeveloping a former Gander Mountain store in Eden Prairie into a multitenant center with an Asian grocery store anchor, restaurants and other retailers.
Reznick, who through 4th Dimension Properties partners with Kohan in about 30 malls across the country, said the Burnsville Center ownership group is in the process of selling some of the lots around the mall including one to a national restaurant chain he declined to identify.
Meanwhile, city officials rezoned the areas surrounding the mall to mixed-use, which will open up options for the mall land, said Regina Dean, assistant community development director for the city of Burnsville.
After state legislators last year agreed to more flexible criteria for tax-increment financing districts for certain developments, the city of Burnsville was authorized to create TIF districts for the Burnsville Center area, which could help developers with new projects at the mall and to pay for public infrastructure.
And the city of Burnsville was recently awarded a $3.1 million grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation for construction of a new ramp from southbound I-35W to Buck Hill Road near the mall. That's most of the ramp's estimated cost of $5 million. Construction is not expected until 2025, however.
And in response to a request from the Kohan-led ownership group, the city obtained right-of-way for a potential extension of Aldrich Avenue that would create a new entrance on the north side of the mall and boulevard for businesses.
The city in 2019 adopted a plan called the Center Village Vision for the entire Burnsville Center retail corridor.
"At this point, it's not flashy," Dean said. "We are doing everything we can to lay the groundwork."
