Dive Brief:

• What Americans have thought of as the shopping mall for three generations – come, shop, leave – was not the whole idea, and the rest of the concept is now coming into existence where malls first got their start in 1958 in Edina, Minnesota.
• Architect and planner Victor Gruen envisioned the mall as a new urban center outside the city, a suburban downtown where people would live and socialize and work, not just come to shop.
• Now, Southdale Center, Gruen's prototype, has been redeveloped and owner Simon Malls and housing developer Stuart Co. are developing 232 upscale rental units in three buildings on the million-square-foot site. The city of Edina is looking to make the location a transit hub.

Dive Insight:

The new development – or completion of the original development idea – is partly dependent on Edina's affluence. It has been a suburb of large, single-family homes, and the city's economic development manager, Bill Neuendorf, said residents who want to downsize want to stay in town and maintain their standard of living.