Cherry and Front Sts.

Stay right and walk across the S. Front Mall Plaza.

On the one side is Mankato Place shown by the �ENTRY� by the door.  Once this was Front Street--the main commercial street of Mankato.  Until about 1975, this was a working street lined with big stores and small shops, apartments and offices above them.  Under the Urban Renewal Program, what was once the downtown was demolished to make way for �new� mega-block development.

Nearly five blocks of the community's commercial core  along Front St. was flattened.  Most of the businesses closed or relocated to the shopping centers on the �Hilltop� or to other towns far removed from Mankato.  

However, the new development never came.  Today, the only block of commercial space essentially somewhat intact is the block of stores inside the Mall.   The mall was built in response to the major shopping centers that lured Sears and others from the downtown.  The major retail anchors that remained in the mall were Penney�s and Brett�s.  The mall itself did quite well in-spite of the competition for nearly fifteen years.  Later with the development of River Hills Mall, Penney�s relocated there.  Brett�s department store, the only other retail anchor, closed its doors forever in 1992.

Since that time much of the mall has stood vacant with the primary business occupants being BW3 and the Y Barbershop.  In an effort to reuse the mall space, more of the structure was removed and a new City Hall and other government offices were located there.  This gave the mall a sense of place again within the community.

The remainder of the mall is a good example of a unique re-design that lends itself to many kinds of current and future uses.  Note the orientation of the corridor system which is sinuous rather than perfectly linear, the sky lights which permit natural light to penetrate into the interior, little nooks and crannies that serve as conversation and social gathering spots, the central atrium which  is well adapted for many kinds of performances, presentations and displays, the multiple levels with access by both elevator and escalator and the presence of theaters, bars and restaurants which generate activity both during normal business hours and throughout the evening as well.

Exit out the North end of the mall through the Intergovernmental Center to Hickory St.