An extant asset
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It was a bitterly cold afternoon as my new roommate was driving me west on one of Saint Cloud’s busiest thoroughfares, Division Street, toward our new on-campus home. As we passed the intersection with Great River I noticed one of the few things that could take my attention from my frostbitten fingers- a mall.
1 & 2- Crossroads Center under construction in the sixties. 3 & 4- The interior just after the mall’s opening. 5- Aerial of the shopping complex just after opening. 6- The new wing and Dayton’s have been added after the seventies expansion. (Source for all)
That’s the Crossroads Mall, he said as we progressed past the rather unimpressive single story monolith with an anchor at each end. It’s a lot bigger than what you can see from the street, he added. There’s a lot more behind it.
Crossroads Center lease plan ca. 1966. View the full PDF version here.
Not long after, on a Saturday when some buddies and I ended up at the mall theaters for a screening of The Silence of the Lambs, I saw that he was correct. Crossroads Center meanders for quite a distance with parallel concourses unseen from the main highway.
Crossroads Center lease plan ca. 1976. View the full PDF version here.
1- A look down the seventies concourse addition. (Source) 2- The original corridor of Crossroads Center. (Source) 3- Just outside of Scheel’s. (Source) 4- The food court. (Source)
Personally, as one who has more of a fascination with the layout of shopping malls over their interior design, I’ve always disliked these sprawling centers with concourses running at different angles with oddly placed anchors sprouting off of the main complex. Crossroads was definitely one of those, but it was something to do during the bleak Minnesota winter, at least until we could make our way to the better selections at Twin Cities retail destinations like Mall of America or Southdale Center.
Crossroads Center Mallmanac ca. 1994. View the full PDF version here.
Crossroads Center officially opened in 1966 though the two anchors, Sears and JCPenney had been doing business for a while before. They were joined by the standard selection of nameplates for the day such as Walgreens, Kinney and Woolworth.
Crossroads Center Mallmanac ca. 2001. View the full PDF version here.
The first addition came in 1976 when a new wing running perpendicular from the original concourse was built. Capped by Minneapolis based Dayton’s, the new addition increased the square footage of Crossroads Center by 200,000.
1- The Crossroads Center main entrance. 2- The front façade looking toward JCPenney to the west. 3- Big boxes fill Sear’s old space. 4- Macy’s, formerly Dayton’s and Marshall Fields. 5- The newest additions to the mall, Scheel’s and the food court. 6- Overview looking to the southeast. 7- Looking northwest. 8- Aerial to the northeast. (Source for all)
In 1986, another expansion including a Target store as well as eighteen specialty shops in a new corridor paralleling the previous expansion opened. In 2004, its present day footprint was set with the addition of a Scheels All Sport as well as an adjoining food court just to the north of JCPenney.
1- Crossroads Center lease plan ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.
2- Crossroads Center site plan ca. 2024. View the full PDF version here.
Sears pulled up their stakes in 2017 and the space was soon taken over by junior anchors Home Goods, Ulta and DSW Shoes. And as the only significant retail draw between the Twin Cities and, what, Fargo, it should continue to do well enough.
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