One of Minnesota’s Largest Malls is Now Considered a ‘Ghost Mall’

The age of malls seems to be ending. It's sad because I have such fond memories of going to the mall with friends. However, many malls have closed over the years and many others are becoming what's being called 'ghost malls'.

One Minnesota mall that's being called a ghost mall isn't even closed but it's so quiet and there are so many empty storefronts that it has earned the name.

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This particular ghost mall is pretty sad for me because this is the mall I grew up going to with friends a lot. I grew up in the Twin Cities, and if we weren't going to the Mall of America, we were going to the Burnsville Center.

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The Largest Mall in the Midwest

This mall was once the largest mall in the entire Midwest! Obviously, that title belongs to the Mall of America now, but they opened in 1992. The Burnsville Center opened in 1977, and at the time it was a big deal.

It became a shopping destination with over 100 stores under one roof. While it's still one of the biggest malls in Minnesota at 1,100,000 square feet, it's nowhere near the size of MOA at 5,600,000 square feet.

The Burnsville Center is Now a Ghost Mall

Whenever my friends and I would go to the Burnsville Center it was always insanely busy. It was the hot place to be! But I went back a few years ago and it was so dead. Hardly anyone was there and it felt like half of the storefronts weren't open.

A filming company called Northern Films has a channel on YouTube dedicated to preserving the memory of these malls that we used to love. They call the series 'Dead Malls'.

One of the malls that they featured is our beloved Burnsville Center.

The video features a very quiet and empty mall. Lots of empty spaces where stores used to be and not many people.

This is the place where my friends and I would shop at Hollister and beg our parents to get us UGG boots. It's sad to see the mall I have so many memories of disappear but maybe the age of malls is going away. What do you think?

There are also tons of specific stores that are gone now that we miss.