Har Mar Mall keeps me up at night.
Located at the intersection of Snelling Avenue and County Road B, this 63-year-old mall is sitting on 48 acres of prime Roseville real estate. Yet the 446,000-square-foot structure is mostly empty and somehow getting even emptier—in recent years suburban faves Marshall’s and Home Goods both left for greener pastures nearby. Har Mar used to have a movie theater (Har Mar Cinema 11), an ice cream shop (Sunday’s Ice Cream), a clothing store called Dots my mom loved, and a David’s Bridal where a friend of one Racket editor bought her wedding dress. Now? It's all gone.
“Sadly, now I feel it’s in such a state I don’t feel it’s ever coming back,” Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio owner Kathleen Fuery, Har Mar's longest-tenured tenant, told the Strib last year.
I’m a problem solver by nature, mall lover by circumstance. Growing up, I was frequently shooed out of malls for being under 16, and I spent a summer in college working at the Rosedale Mall. Even though Har Mar still has the Barnes & Noble I’ve visited since I was a child, it doesn’t have much else going for it. But I’ve got some ideas I’d like to share.
Before I dive into how to fix things, I think it’s worth mentioning that malls, quickly dimming beacons of capitalism that they are, come with a fair number of problems—think economic instability, increasing wealth gaps, and depleting resources. So I will be prioritizing options that focus on community and connection, rather than profit and, well, more profit.
A list of options, in no particular order...
Tear It All Down! Start Over!
The Pitch: By tearing the mall down, we’d have a lot of room for things like affordable housing, a large park, or a mixed-use development like the one at the Ford site in St. Paul’s Highland Park area or what’s coming to the former Kmart site at Lake Street and First Avenue in Minneapolis.
Pro: Har Mar presents almost a half-million square feet of opportunity. That’s a lot of space to work with! I have visions of a new drive-in movie theater, an indoor go-kart experience, or heck—a new concert hall.
Con: This seems like a logical option, but it’s going to create a headache for the locals. There’s currently a Cub Foods at Har Mar, for example, that I’m sure folks would be annoyed to see leave the area, even if only temporarily.
Add a Pool and a Gym
The Pitch: The Marshall’s that vacated last year left a space that seems like a good size for a pool and some locker rooms. I mean, it already has fitting rooms—we’re halfway there!
Pro: You can never have too many pools and community gathering spaces, especially ones that offer free- and low-cost swimming lessons, affordable memberships, and job training like the V3 Center in north Minneapolis does.
Con: I’m afraid to even suggest pickleball (sorry, I have a genuine hatred for the sport), but it’s hard to ignore its hold on the Twin Cities. Instead, might I suggest another option? How about we add more Tuj Lub courts?
Add a Roller Rink
The pitch: I tried to learn how to rollerskate during the beginning of Covid and it went very poorly. But during my struggles, I learned that roller rinks in the Twin Cities are few and far between. There’s Skateville in Burnsville and Cheap Skate Roller Center in Coon Rapids—that’s it!
Pro: By turning the hallways of the mall into one glorious roller rink, perhaps we can transform Har Mar into a groovy, magical place. Burnsville Center did something similar, opening a skate park in the former Gap Kids space.
Con: Can the Twin Cities even sustain a roller rink? With recent-ish closings including TCS Studio Uptown and the Roller Garden, it’s definitely a risk.
Revamp and Model It After Maplewood Mall
The pitch: Maplewood Mall has seen a resurgence in the last few years, thanks to its commitment to local and experiential retailers, such as the Enchanted Film Museum and pop-culture retailer Gullywubbles. They are 100% leased, the Biz Journal reported last year, and are committed to their community by prioritizing local businesses and entrepreneurs over glossy chain stores.
Pro: We’ve all seen what happened to Uptown in Minneapolis and Grand Avenue in St. Paul; major chains often don’t stick around when their lease is up and no one’s going to make a special trek to Restoration Hardware or Sephora when they can just shop online. Local businesses, however, are worth a trip.
Con: In the end, it's still a mall, which brings us back to square one if it doesn't pan out.
Turn Har Mar Into the Paris Casino in Las Vegas
The pitch: Hear me out on this one! I don’t mean we should actually have a casino in the middle of Roseville. I’m saying we should bring the vibe to Roseville, and turn the inside of the mall into a Parisian sidewalk, complete with cafes and patisseries—heck, throw in a gondola and pretend we’re on the banks of the Seine.
Pro: I realize this might just be wishful thinking, but a stroll through a mall where people can pretend they’re in a Parisian arrondissement might just be enough of a thrill to cure the winter blues.
Con: But please, no Meow Wolf or anything like it. We already have enough of that stuff at the Mall of America. It’s all too gaudy, Insta focused, and the bright colors and busy clutter is anxiety-inducing. Let’s keep it classy and ground this pitch in realism.
What do you say, Racket readers? Does any of this make you want to go back to the mall today? Share your pitches and ideas in the comments.
