Zara opening two story unit at Mall of America's

Minneapolis's Mall of America is getting a new tenant. Spanish fast-fashion retailer Zara is opening their first Minnesota location in the mall. The opening of the new 30,000-square-foot store has been one of the worst kept secrets in retail. A few months ago, Zara began making job postings regarding new positions in Minnesota, and the speculation was all but confirmed from there.

Today, Mall of America has officially announced that Zara will be one of their tenants.

“It’s definitely destination retail,” said Beth Perro-Jarvis of Twin Cities-based Ginger Consulting to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I think it may bring women back to the Mall of America who have gone elsewhere.” She went on to add that "I personally love Zara. A lot of women love the brand. It has a great price point, it’s always fresh and it’s fun to go in there.”

Zara is a global power player, with over 2000 stores across the globe. However, they only have around 50 stores in the United States. While they have seen a lot of growth in the number of retail stores they are opening, they have no ambitions to be like their competitor H&M whose goal is to open one store per day.

Instead, they are focusing on opening key flagship locations going forward, like the three-story location they just opened in downtown Manhattan.

Zara will be joining Anthropologie as some of the first stores to open in Mall of America's new front entrance. No further tenants have been announced at this time.

The mall itself has been seeing expansion over the past eleven years. The plan to expand it north was announced in 2005 as part of "Mall of America Phase 2." The project was delayed due to the tight credit market caused by the recession. It was eventually broken up into four separate projects, with the first two parts (phases 1B and 1C) completed, with 2B expected to be completed in 2019, and 2C still being conceptualized.