Progress reported at Eden Prairie Center

Amid challenges for many local retailers, the JLL management company has announced that Eden Prairie Center is making progress with its tenants on several fronts.

JLL is the professional services firm that manages the 1.4 million-square-foot Eden Prairie mall.

Ted Gonsior, executive vice president of JLL, stated that the mall is experiencing significant investment and a high level of inventiveness by its tenant stores.

According to Gonsior, the long COVID-19 siege has stimulated a renewed desire in the consumer to have a brick-and-mortar life, to go where goods can be seen and touched, and to have a more social kind of shopping.

JLL reported the following news on Eden Prairie Center:

Von Maur solidified its 20-year presence at the mall by completing the purchase of the real estate pad for its mall location.

Scheels marked its first anniversary at the mall in July. The 250,000-square-foot store covers nearly 22 acres or 25 percent of the entire Eden Prairie Center shopping complex.

Target completed a full-store remodel in early October. It includes an Ulta Beauty at Target shop-in-shop concept.

JCPenney will remain open at the center. In 2020, JCPenney announced it would close several stores but decided to keep the Eden Prairie location open. 

Hi-Five Sports Zone is a 20,000-square-foot indoor sports facility that opened in the mall this past summer. It has basketball courts, turf fields, a multi-use court, and a putting green. The facility offers sports programming in the form of camps, classes, birthday parties, leagues and an after-school club. 

Also, JLL reports the signing of 30 tenant lease extensions within the last 12 months. Some of the shopping center’s recent lease extensions include Francesca’s, Bath & Body Works, Old Navy, Eddie Bauer, Potbelly and Wildfire.

Gonsior noted that each tenant has a strategy. Apparently, he said Von Maur purchased its real estate pad for greater control while Scheels is ground leasing its large space.

With a high level of staffing pressure, Gonsior predicts center tenants will make fuller use of technology, especially the retail apps.

Because of supply chain shortages, he said, tenants focus on the timing of purchases, ensuring consumers have the full range of product selections they traditionally expect.

Gonsior said Eden Prairie Center is relatively stable today. It is poised to serve a new kind of consumer. During the lockdown, the consumer has become more mobile and app-based. This new breed is a more nimble and more educated consumer, he added.