A FAMILY-FRIENDLY mall.
Howdy dear readers! How was your Friday night? Did you enjoy a few brewskies on the patio of your favorite watering hole? Hit up ‘da clubz? Go for a boatride on Lake Minnetonka? Take in a Twins game at Target Field?
As for me, I spent my Friday night at the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall. The party never stops.
The exterior of the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall is so inviting.
As far as dead malls go, Coon Rapids Family Center Mall is one pretty fuckin’ sweet dead mall.
Sorry. I’ll try to watch my language. This is a FAMILY mall.
Now that Brookdale is gone, this is one of my favorite dead malls in Minnesota. Coon Rapids Family Center Mall has this dead mall thing down pat. If you’re in mall management and hope that your property becomes a dead mall one day, then let the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall be your mentor. Take notes, mall managers, for this is a dead mall done right.
First, you’ve got empty storefronts. This is a pretty easy one to cross off the dead mall checklist. I mean, you can’t have a dead mall when you have no real estate for lease.
A dead mall isn't a dead mall without some empty stores
Second, it should have a dated appearance. Most malls have gone through a renovation or two in their day, but it’s the ones that make you feel like you’re in another decade that are the best dead malls. I believe the interior of the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall has been through one renovation, perhaps in the early ’80s? The outside, though, looks straight out of the 1960s.
The retro exterior of the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall
Next, it’s gotta be dark & depressing inside. A brightly-lit dead mall isn’t going to give off the same vibe as a low-lit one. It’s a dead mall for crying out loud, make it moody.
Dark and moody
Then there’s the creep factor. A dead mall needs to be creepy and there’s gotta be something in that mall that gives you that sinister feeling. For the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall, these strange paintings in the windows will do the trick.
Jesus take the wheel NO!
The mall also has to have physical signs of decay. When I go to a dead mall, I want to see peeling paint! Letters missing off signs! Weeds in the parking lot! Broken glass! Lots of muthafuckin’ rust!
…(Families!!!! Must think of the families!)
Coon Rapids Family Center Mall has these bases covered.
Finally, if it has tenants, it must have mostly non-traditional tenants: When a mall is on its last breath, management lowers the rent to bargain-basement prices to attract tenants. This is how those oddball businesses, like real estate offices, small engine repair shops and police substations always seem find their way into an enclosed mall. In the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall’s case, their main tenant is a school. It’d be awesome if they had a DEB and a check cashing place, but the nearby Northtown Mall has that covered, so I’ll let it slide.
When I rolled up to the mall, I noticed that the parking lot was PACKED. I wasn’t surprised, as it’s a Friday night and the cars are obviously there for the Grand Slam arcade and not the mall itself. Still, though, I expected shady characters, drug dealers, hell, even zombies inside the mall. Who did I see? No one. I was the only one in the entire mall. Granted, I came here on a Friday night and the mall’s main tenant is a school. But still. I had free reign of this place!
Tables and chairs just like these are scattered everywhere in the mall. You know, just in case...
I don’t know much about this mall and there isn’t much information out there. This is all I know:
The mall opened in 1964 and was originally named “Thompson Heights Shopping Center.” Red Owl grocery store anchored the mall; other tenants included a movie theater (the Owl Theater in the 1970s, which at one point was renamed “Rapids Cinema”), a cafe, home improvement store, a clothing store, a sporting goods store, a bakery and a pharmacy. (Sorry, my source did not name names, but maybe you can?)
It's pretty obvious that this is a place for families...
Looking at the mall directory, however, you can make out some of the names of former tenants: I spotted a Brauns (Mom would be so happy!), Lapanta’s (I believe it was actually Lapanta’s Hallmark), a chiropractor and a Bible store, but that’s all I can see. Perhaps you can do better?
Thankfully, the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall provides a map in case you get lost.
The mall doubled in size in 1972. Red Owl left the mall in the 1990s and the Grand Slam arcade took its place. Once Red Owl left, mall management changed its name to the Coon Rapids Family Center Mall.
The mall has very few tenants these days — there’s a barber shop, Marta’s Tailor, Grand Slam, and a school. I visited this mall back in 2009 and took pictures, but never wrote the post. Fortunately, the mall is virtually the same, except that Mr. T’s cleaners is no longer here and the flags have been removed from the parking lot poles. The mall has been dead as long as I can remember, but I never actually walked inside until now.
Even though the mall is pretty much deserted, this lil' barber pole keeps spinnin' round!
I don’t know the when’s and why’s of this mall’s fall from grace. I don’t know when/why the majority of the tenants jumped ship or know a timeline of when the Anoka-Hennipen District #11 school moved in. I will say though, at least the mall remains true to its name: Schools and arcades are, in fact, family-friendly.
I don't think you can ask this Sherwin Williams for painting advice...
I have no stories or memories about this mall, so I can’t bond with you, dear reader, over stories about how I almost got tossed from a Grand Slam birthday party for finding a loophole in a Skee-Ball machine’s ticket dispenser. Never happened, because I’ve never been there. Those kind of shenanigans, however, did happen over at the Village North Circus Circus…
This is a gyro & espresso drive thru joint located on the premises. I know it was in business in 1998, but I have no idea when it closed.
I know, there’s a whole lotta ‘I don’t know-ing” going on but there just isn’t any information out there. You can Google it yourself, if you wish, but I’ll spare you the trouble because all you will find are maps, lodging information near this mall (as if this were an attraction for those planning their next family vacation) and results from this blog.
I pity the fool who brings his suit here for cleaning (pic taken May 2009)
As far as I know, there are no redevelopment plans in the works, so if you care to stroll through this mall yourself, there’s no need to rush. But why waste the gas? You’re on the Dumpy Strip Malls blog; I visit these suburban shitholes so you don’t have to. (Hmm…new motto?)
Death by Riverdale
The Riverdale shopping area, located a few miles north of this mall and built in the late ’90s, killed this entire area. A few years ago, I did a post about the abandoned Target across the street, so check that out if you want more information on this area. I wrote that post in 2009, and it has since been torn down.
Grand Slam, mall entrance. Look closely. Yours truly makes a cameo in the reflection!
Don’t forget to check out the photo gallery – I took a lot of photos here and I can’t possibly put them all on this blog post — and some are from my first trip here in May 2009. Any memories of this mall or any information you care to share? Please post in the comments!
What a cool retro mall. There are very few malls like this left in 2012 in urban areas that have not been closed or redeveloped. The cost to run a small nearly empty mall is much lower than a large empty mall which explains why the above mall has lasted longer than larger malls such as Brookdale. Keep up the great posts.
Apparently the people running the Shoreview Mall took your advice in reverse and cleaned it up to make it less dumpy. All of the artwork was painted over with a boring brown.
No!!! I was going to go over there and re-photograph it, since I lost a lot of the pictures from that post (the Shoreview Village Mall post is one that I still need to repost).
Thanks for letting me know though – now I don’t have to make a trip over there. I’ll just post what I have
This mall used to be our stomping place. After Red Owl went out of business…the biggest attraction was the “Minnesota Fabric” store on the north end. Sewing was “big” in the 80′s…I’d pack up the kids and head to the fabric store about twice a week. The kids hated going here. There was nothing to look at except some old fabric and it took me forever to look through the pattern books. They did beg to go to the pet store though that was across from Minnesota Fabrics. But, that wasn’t much of a thrill either. The pet store only had a few turtles, fish and a some birds. Back then Target was the pull to the area. When they put in the “adult” store next to the Target parking lot…we knew that Target’s days were numbered! It was dead on that street even before Riverdale came to the area. Seems like when one store pulls out…they all want to go! The Target moved to main street (242) before Riverdale was even built.
Women did enjoy Brauns. Brauns and the cleaners were some of the last holdouts! If we need tailoring…we still go to Marta’s. She’s been there forever and does marvelous work!
Did you ever see the Apache Plaza ghost mall? Don’t think it’s there anymore…but that was another one of my memories. Northtown…it’s not too far behind!
Wow! This is great information! Thank you!
Besides MN Fabrics, which we went to as kids a lot with our mom, there was a VMO (Variety Merchandise Outlet), which we liked to go to. The little “espresso” shop you photographed in the parking lot was a Burger Time first. Oh, MN Fabrics changed to Hancock Fabrics and moved to a strip mall next to Northtown Mall when it left the Family Center Mall…it’s one of the only remaining stores in it’s new spot (others by it’s new location which are gone were Circuit City, Sports Authority, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond; there is a Michael’s still next to it).
I grew up in Coon Rapids during the 1970s and our family shopped at the Red Owl all the time! We always mixed-and-matched a case of the Red Owl brand soda (the Black Cherry was awesome). I also remember a Fotomat that was a small stand-alone building in the parking lot. I got my haircuts at the Family Center barber. The original owner was an old guy with lots of tattoos and he had old Playboys in his waiting area! My 80-year-old dad still gets his hair cut there! I also remember the old theater. We saw lots of movies there. I also remember a record store that opened in 1976. They advertised that they were giving away a free “45″ at their grand opening (i thought you could pick your own freebie). I was hoping to get “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John & Kiki Dee, but instead the guy was giving away “America The Beautiful” by Charlie Rich (he had a whole box of them)! I learned a valuable lesson that day. BTW, I believe the “Mr. T” in Mr. T’s Cleaners referred to Dutch Townsend (sp?) who owned the place. I also remember the pet store.
Oh, how could I forget the Coon Rapids Municipal Liquor store?!? Those were the days when the city actually owned the liquor stores in town. That liquor store anchored the “back entrance” for years.
It’s interesting reading experiences of people from the ’70s at this place during its days as an active shopping center. I’m a younger person, but I did have experiences at this place during its days as a dead shopping mall.
I went to school at the Family Center mall for my 7th grade year. It was an alternative school, quite a few kids with behavioral problems. I think there was also a preschool in another area of the mall at that time. I managed to spend a fair amount of time perusing the interior of the mall during my time there, my brother and I stayed after school sometimes for extra help on our math work.
A few details to mention. It’s not mentioned in the article, but the exterior has been repainted in recent years. That blue/white paintjob is newer. I went to school there around 2003-2004, and the building was red/brown colored then. And the Gyro/Espresso place closed down in that same 2003-2004 window of my 7th grade year. I think my brother and I were gonna get some hot chocolate or something from there one morning, only to find it had been closed.
Lots of memories of this mall in the 70′s and 80′s, but unfortunately time has not been kind to me (or the mall) and I can’t remember all the stores that were there that far back. I remember sitting in the shopping cart at Red Owl, which turned into “The Country Store” before closing for good. Inside the entrance to the mall were two coin operated kiddie rides that I’d beg my Mom into letting me on. I had many a haircut as a young man at the Barber Shop, and used Marta’s tailor shop on a few occasions as well. I know there used to be a Radio Shack there, which I think turned into the Bible Shop which then became a karate studio before becoming the educational center. Of course, no trip there would have been complete without a visit to “Pet Land” where we got the worst dog we ever had in 1981, and I bought my hamster food there as well in 1985. They used to have awesome fish and puppies, kittens…etc. They also had one of those “Kiddierama” cartoon players where you could watch Woody Woodpecker or Chilly Willy cartoons for 25 cents. Ah, memories.