Rosedale thinks beyond shopping.

Byline: William Morris

In three years, Rosedale Center may practically be a city all to itself.

The Roseville mall, which is operated by JLL, announced plans in September for a major expansion project on the south side of the mall, replacing the vacant Herberger's anchor store. On Monday, the company shared more specifics with city leaders: roughly 350 market-rate apartments and 212 age 55-plus active adult units, two hotels with 290 combined rooms, 100,000 square feet of office space, including medical, and up to 220,000 additional square feet of commercial.

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The project, originally pegged at $100 million, now carries a $200 million price tag, although General Manager Lisa Crain emphasized that both figures are still early estimates. In an interview, she said it's no longer enough for a shopping center to just focus on attracting customers to stores.

"Really, it's something that we have to do, I think, in our industry. We always have to be changing what we're doing," Crain said. "A lot of malls are struggling, [but] we're succeeding because we're investing in transforming our center into an amazing place."

That's not to say retail no longer matters. The mall is about 98% leased, with the exception of the Herberger's space vacated when the chain went out of business in 2018. That vacancy created an opportunity to rethink the south side of the mall, but JLL would have moved forward with a similar project even if Herberger's was still open, Crain said.

"We would have integrated the Herberger's into something like this. So absolutely, I think that we would have done this...