Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier closed its Galleria storefront in 2013. This month it reopened in the same shopping center, next to Good Earth Restaurant at 1 W. 69th St., as the brand's only retail location in Minnesota. Thirteen years is a long time for a chocolatier to sit out a market, and its return says less about chocolate than it does about what the Galleria has decided to become.
Walk the Galleria this fall and you'll notice the tenant roster reads differently than it did before the recent renovation. Rivian's experience center, where you can sit in a vehicle and ask questions about range and materials without a sales pitch, is now open. An expanded Arhaus showroom, nearly double its old footprint at 25,000 square feet, occupies the renovated center section along with Sweet Paris Crêperie. Boll & Branch and Faribault Mill, the 160-year-old Minnesota blanket maker now on its second Edina storefront, moved in over the past year. Mille and Pumpz Bijoux, both Minneapolis-based women's clothing and accessory brands, opened their doors last October. A seasonal pop-up called Lodge 25, styled after what the Galleria describes as an Aspen ski-town aesthetic, returns for the cold months.
The Galleria's changing tenant mix is unfolding alongside a major retail investment just across France Avenue.
Southdale's $400 Million Renovation
Southdale Center, America's first enclosed climate-controlled mall when it opened in 1956, is in the middle of a $400 million renovation aimed at national luxury retail, with a stated goal of 50 store openings. That renovation has already pulled tenants across the street. Luxury jeweler David Yurman and preppy lifestyle brand Vineyard Vines both left the Galleria for space in Southdale's new luxury wing.
For a shopping center built on decades of curated, owner-operated boutiques mixed with recognizable national names, losing two anchors to your closest competitor could read as decline. The Galleria's leadership framed it differently. As Twin Cities Business reported, managing director Jennifer Smith said in a statement that the departures gave the center "the opportunity to realign with our core identity," calling the new phase one built around "locally owned and highly curated brands."
That's not spin dressed up after the fact. It matches the construction math. The renovated center section totals 53,536 square feet across two levels, built out by Kraus-Anderson with a roof raised ten feet for more natural light, a new glass elevator, and a new loading dock. That's a lot of capital to sink into a building if the plan were simply to backfill empty storefronts. It's the kind of investment a property makes when it's betting on a specific kind of tenant staying for years, not months.
What "Core Identity" Looks Like on the Ground
The easiest way to see the strategy is to look at who's actually filling the space Yurman and Vineyard Vines left behind.
| Business | Category | Status this fall |
|---|---|---|
| Bissinger's Handcrafted Chocolatier | Confectioner, Minnesota's only location | Open |
| Rivian | Electric vehicle experience center | Open |
| Arhaus | Furniture and home décor, expanded showroom | Open |
| Sweet Paris Crêperie | Café, third Twin Cities location | Open |
| Boll & Branch | Home textiles | Open |
| Faribault Mill | Minnesota blanket manufacturer, second Edina store | Open |
| Mille | Women's clothing | Opened October 2025 |
| Pumpz Bijoux | Vintage jewelry sourced from Paris | Opened October 2025 |
| Vivid Home | Upscale home store, Minneapolis-founded | Announced for February 2026 |
Faribault Mill's Edina expansion isn't a hedge. The 160-year-old manufacturer has posted what the company describes as record sales growth in recent years, and choosing a second Edina storefront over a location elsewhere in the metro is a bet on this specific shopping center's foot traffic. Arhaus didn't shrink into a smaller footprint when it renewed its lease. It doubled its old space and added a covered terrace that functions as an outdoor furnishings showroom. Those aren't the moves of tenants hedging against a mall in decline.
There's also a home goods retailer still unnamed as of this writing, described only as offering "well designed goods for a well designed life" on the Galleria's own site, expected sometime this fall. A furniture and décor brand is set to follow in 2027. The pattern holds: home, apparel, food, and experiential retail with a specific point of view, rather than the broad national mix Southdale is chasing.
Two Malls, One Intersection, Different Bets
Southdale and the Galleria sit across the street from each other in Edina, close enough that a shopper can walk between them. For decades they've functioned less like competitors and more like complementary halves of the same retail district. What's changed isn't the geography. It's that each mall now has a clear, distinct answer to what happens to a Minneapolis suburb's retail center when e-commerce keeps eating into a mall's job description.
Southdale's answer is national scale. Fifty new store openings, a nine-figure construction budget, and a bet that shoppers still want the recognizable luxury names they'd find at any major American mall.
The Galleria's answer is specificity. A chocolatier with a Paris-to-America origin story going back to 1845 and only one Minnesota address. A Minnesota blanket mill in its second Edina location. Women's clothing brands headquartered in Minneapolis. An EV showroom that lets you sit in the car before you decide anything. These are stores you can't find at Ridgedale, Rosedale, or the Mall of America, which is precisely the point.
Neither strategy is wrong. But they are opposite bets on the same question, and the answer will show up over the next year or two in which mall's parking lot fills up on a random Tuesday afternoon.
What This Actually Looks Like If You Go This Fall
If you haven't been to the Galleria since before the renovation wrapped, the center section alone is worth the walk. Start at the Arhaus showroom to see what a 10-foot roof raise and a glass elevator actually buy you in terms of natural light. Walk past Sweet Paris Crêperie next door, then head toward Good Earth Restaurant, where Bissinger's has set up shop after a 13-year absence, open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
If you're curious about the Rivian showroom, there's no pressure to buy anything. You can look at the materials and wheel options, and test drive a vehicle if you want to see how it handles before committing to anything. Mille and Pumpz Bijoux, both open since last October, sit on the north side near Rothy's, and Pumpz's new concept store specializes in vintage jewelry sourced from Paris, a different concept from its original storefront in the same mall.
None of this requires picking a side between the Galleria and Southdale. Most Edina residents will keep shopping at both, the way they always have. But the next time you're deciding where to spend a Saturday afternoon, it's worth knowing that Southdale is pursuing national brands, while the Galleria is emphasizing local and experiential retail.
Set Apart Realty spends a lot of time in Edina living rooms, not just its shopping centers, helping neighbors here buy, sell, and settle into homes with the same hands-on care the community expects everywhere else. If you're curious what's changing in your corner of the Twin Cities, Set Apart Realty is always glad to talk it through.
