BLOOMINGTON, MN (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — On Monday, officials at the Mall of America unveiled the list of some of the new tenants for their planned "phase II" expansion at the megalithic mall. The list included a number of well-known firms, including promoter-giant AEG, who hopes to build a performing arts center and a dinner theater at the mall. Mall officials hope that the PAC will attract performers who might not be able to fill a larger room. If construction proceeds, they intend to host about 120 shows a year at the venue.
The Ghermezians Brothers just acquired a controlling interest in the mall from Simon Properties, a move which clears a number of the legal hurdles for the construction to proceed. Despite paying approximately $1 billion to acquire TIAA-CREF's shares in the facility, the Ghermezians are counting on public financing for the planned construction. Mall officials have intimated that without public underwriting for tens of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure improvements, that the expansion will not proceed. They have also be recently denied about 200 Million in tax breaks and it is likely that the planned expansion will be leveraged in a new effort to get those exemptions improved.
In addition to the PAC, the planned expansion includes:
Additionally, 25 million will be spent on improvements to existing amusement attractions like rides. Annually, the mall receives about 40 million visitors, which is approximately 8 times the population of the mall's home state of Minnesota. The shopping complex sprawls over 4.2 million square ft with an additional 5.6 million zoned for phase II – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
