Luxury retailers Gucci, Max Mara and Breitling are coming to Southdale

The nation’s pioneering indoor shopping mall, Edina’s Southdale, announced that luxury fashion retailers Gucci, Moncler and Max Mara, as well as the elite watchmaker Breitling will open shops there in the fourth quarter of this year — their first locations in the Twin Cities market.

Southdale’s owner, Simon Property Group, also noted plans to bring in more high-end clothing and accessory brands in 2025, including Burberry, Rolex, Coach and Kate Spade New York.

The new additions are part of a massive renovation at the Edina mall to create an upscale shopping wing between AMC Theatres and the former Herberger’s. At Southdale, it’s out with Buffalo Wild Wings and in with valet parking.

The transformation is part of Simon’s $400 million effort to double-down on luxury and expand the concept of a mall — becoming “the ultimate Live/Work/Play/Stay/Shop destination experience,” as the company likes to put it.

Over the past dozen years, Simon, the country’s largest mall operator, has greatly diversified Southdale’s offerings. The corners of the massive parking area are now anchored by a Shake Shack, One Southdale Place luxury apartments, Homewood Suites extended-stay hotel and the fancy home furnisher RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) with its swanky rooftop restaurant.

The onetime home of JCPenny is now a Life Time Fitness gym and co-working space. Another empty department store space, formerly occupied by Herberger’s, is in the process of becoming Kowalski’s Market on the ground floor with a mini-golf and entertainment venue called Puttshack above it. The mixed-use concept for the mall is closer to what its architect, Victor Gruen, had envisioned when Southdale opened in 1956.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday highlighted Southdale’s transformation as a reflection of the national trend of top-tier malls being top performers, due to their spendy goods and expanding array of amenities. The Journal noted that even though shoppers aren’t scurrying to shopping centers the way they did in the “Mallrats” era, they’re more likely to make big purchases.

Despite the rise of online shopping, those buying a status watch or handbag want to see it in person — and perhaps to show it off afterwards at a nearby restaurant.

Since developers around the United States have all but ceased from building enclosed shopping malls, competitors are basically established. Southdale has already lured several businesses away from Galleria, the upscale shopping center across W. 69th Street, including Tory Burch, Lululemon and RH.

But Edina is an affluent suburb, with an average household income of $125,000. And robust spending should be bolstered by more young families moving into the community and hybrid work keeping people shopping and dining close to home.