Join us for an enlightening conversation with Jill Renslow, Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer for Mall of America. She offers an insider's perspective on the evolution, current state, and future plans of this iconic destination. We also explore its significant role in boosting tourism in Minnesota, the changing dynamics of retail and some delightful moments, like the surprise visit from Ed Sheeran.
Mall of America
So Much More, A Mall of America Podcast
Experience Rochester, MN
Join us for an enlightening conversation with Jill Renslow, Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer for Mall of America. She offers an insider's perspective on the evolution, current state, and future plans of this iconic destination. We also explore its significant role in boosting tourism in Minnesota, the changing dynamics of retail and some delightful moments, like the surprise visit from Ed Sheeran.
Mall of America
So Much More, A Mall of America Podcast
Experience Rochester, MN
The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
Speaker 2:It's been interesting to see the change in the retail landscape, especially since the pandemic impacted all of us, and we definitely saw some doors closed during the pandemic, as we saw across the country, and they were brands that didn't necessarily have a long-term view of what their strategy was going to look like. But we've had dozens of new brands that have opened in the last couple of years that have embraced the brick-and-mortar experience.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, bill Vaughn Bank. Jill Renslow started her career as an intern at Mall of America 26 years ago. Today, she leads the business development and marketing for Mall of America. I had the opportunity to sit down with Jill to discuss her impressive career, the evolution of Mall of America and its growth plans. We also discussed the state of retail and Mall of America's larger role of promoting tourism in Minnesota. We're on location at Mall of America, the nation's largest entertainment and retail complex in Bloomington, minnesota. I'm joined by Jill Renslow, chief Business Development and Marketing Officer for Mall of America. Jill, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, bill, excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, you have quite a bit of history here at Mall of America, so we'd like to learn more about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, many years. I'm actually coming up on my 26th anniversary with Mall of America.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, isn't it crazy.
Speaker 2:We've worked together for many years, so it's been fun to really see Mall of America evolve. I started here as an event intern 26 years ago and never left. I don't think there's a lot of people in this world that have the pleasure and the opportunity, like I have, to work for a company my entire career. But it all started back in the events world and I loved the opportunity to entertain our guests with different personalities. All the celebrities that I've been able to work with and all the events and special occasions and, honestly, traditions that our guests have created over the years and being able to recognize that I've been part of that has been very rewarding and every single day when I come to work I have the opportunity to see that happiness that we bring to people as they walk through our doors and experience Mall of America.
Speaker 1:As an intern 26 years ago, did you expect this would be a career?
Speaker 2:I don't think I did. It was my dream job to be able to work for a company in event planning. I didn't realize that this would be a long-term career and having the opportunities that I've had, working and building my way up the ladder and really creating different positions within the organization that have benefited each step and each evolution of Mall of America along the way, has been extremely rewarding. And to build a team we have the best team in the world and to be able to work with these people hand in hand every single day is just such a pleasure and I am just honored to be able to work for a company that's so amazing to work for.
Speaker 1:Well, mall of America just celebrated its 31st anniversary as an entertainment destination. It annually attracts 40 million visitors from all over the world. Why do you think Mall of America is still so popular?
Speaker 2:It's because every time people come visit us there is something new. We really strive to keep the property fresh, the experience new and innovative, and really that sense of surprise. So when guests come to visit here they really don't know what to expect. They come for their favorites, they enjoy the mix of dining, entertainment and retail. But then there's always those elements of surprise and just to mention this, last weekend Ed Sheeran surprised our guests by coming to the LEGO store. We actually received a call on Monday. We had actually backing up.
Speaker 2:Our team had been working on this for quite some time because we had heard that on his tour he was visiting all these different locations at the cities that he was performing in. So our team had been reaching out to his team to figure out how they were going to be able to get them to come here, because we wanted to make sure this was a special visit on his tour. And then finally on Monday we got the call between LEGO and Ed Sheeran's team to say, hey, we want to stop by and make a special visit. And, sure enough, on Saturday we were able to make it happen and surprised our guests. We had to keep it under wraps. I couldn't even tell our ownership of that he was coming. They were so worried about the word getting out there. But it's moments like that that make it really special, not only for our guests but for our team to be able to deliver those special moments for everybody that's in this building.
Speaker 1:That visit was all over social media over the weekend it was.
Speaker 2:And we actually hit national media. It was. It's so fantastic when you can wake up in the morning and get it while you're getting ready watching the news, watching the Today Show, and there is Ed Sheeran at Malv America. Just being able to know that those small moments can make a such a big difference across our country really just makes us all excited and proud for where we work.
Speaker 1:You mentioned LEGO, but within this large complex are many great entertainment attractions. Can you, can you, speak to that?
Speaker 2:That's one element that really makes us unique. When you know malls in our name as Malv America Entertainment is really something that differentiated us from the very beginning, and having a seven acre theme park right in the middle. So back in the day it was Nottsbury Farms, Camp Snoopy. Today, now we're at Nickelodeon Universe and actually we've been with Nickelodeon longer than we were with Camp Snoopy. So we just celebrated 15 years with Nickelodeon. Wow, Isn't that amazing. All the time flies.
Speaker 1:I love that opening.
Speaker 2:It was fantastic. I mean, it's everything orange, but just being able to reinvigorate the theme park experience with all the new team members, with SpongeBob and the gang and all the characters. But beyond that, we have Sea Life, which is a Merlin entertainment concept which was underwater world when we first opened, so that has evolved over time as well, but the core elements of having the walk through aquarium and all the different Sea Life connections. That's been a great attraction. But some of the new ones we've just added. We have Museum of Illusions, which is actually optical illusions. It's an Instagram dream. They have so many cool photo moments. Wink World is going to be opened up pretty soon and that's from the creators of Blue man.
Speaker 1:Group. So that's going to be a whole new.
Speaker 2:they have an attraction down in Vegas and so they're going to do their second attraction here at Malv America. Climzone is a new one that we added. That's inside Nickelodeon universe, but there's a various array of design climbing walls for kids of all ages. They love it. But we just we're always looking for ways to differentiate Malv America, so we have that mix of retail dining, but the attractions and entertainment really make it special.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the national coverage with Ed Sheeran here and I imagine Malv America has been such a pull for the state tourism as a whole. And then, in terms of economic impact, can you share some some of the economic impact figures that Malv America brings to Minnesota?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the tourist guest is so important for us here in Minnesota. Our split is about 60% of our guests are local, 40% are tourists and that drive market tourists is the bread and butter. There's a lot of families that come here when kids are out of school, whether that spring break or summer vacation or even during the holidays. But the international travel is important as well and the key to our success is working with all the other tourism groups in Minnesota. So it's the convention of visitors bureaus of Bloomington, minneapolis, st Paul, rochester, duluth, st Cloud, working with all those CVBs as well as with the Explorer Minnesota, the state tourism department, to package Minnesota to the world.
Speaker 2:So not only will people come here to shop, because shopping is the number one leisure activity for tourists, but it's also grab a twins game, go enjoy the arts and entertainment, the awesome culinary vibe that we have in this marketplace, but all the things that are there, even if it's the great outdoors or golfing. We have so much to offer in Minnesota. So when we can package that experience with all of our partners it really lures in the visitors to our state. And so when you look at the economic impact that Mall of America has brought to the state of Minnesota. We figure, based on our research, that every dollar spent in Mall of America, $2 are spent outside at other restaurants, in the hospitality industry, with hotels, with transportation, so that's a $3 billion economic impacts. Our annual sale are about a billion dollars Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You mentioned international travel and it's slowly coming back, and Mall of America has been a big force in selling Minnesota around the globe for years. Will that continue?
Speaker 2:International travel is very important and it not only is important to drive at the economic impact for the state of Minnesota, but it puts Minnesota on the map internationally. It's great when you're traveling abroad and you mentioned Mall of America. The recognition, the brand awareness is 99% and so we have helped establish that reputation for Minnesota and also for the United States, and so that international traveler is important. We have a dedicated tourism team here within our marketing group at Mall of America that travels and does different trade shows in international markets that really market Minnesota and Mall of America to the world. So that's very important and the key is the airport, the close proximity to the international airport. Our airport is like no other. We are award winning, we're very proud of our airport and it's very convenient for travelers to land here in Minnesota and either take light rail transit which is directly connected to Mall of America, or there's shuttle services with all the area hotels ride share. It's very convenient for guests to be able to get across the interstate literally to Mall of America. It's very convenient.
Speaker 1:And so many direct flights to important international destinations.
Speaker 2:Most definitely, and there's a lot of Scandinavian routes here in Minnesota, so we have a very strong fly market to Iceland and all the Nordic countries, but also Germany, uk, france very strong markets for us as well, as there's a lot of Asian markets and we're picking up more in the South American countries as well.
Speaker 1:Obviously, mall of America is more than just retail. We've just spoke to that, but retail is a big part of the experience. Nationwide brick and mortar retailers are struggling. There's been a lot of reporting on this. What does the future look like for retail at Mall of America?
Speaker 2:The future is very strong. It's been interesting to see the change in the retail landscape, especially since the pandemic impacted all of us, and we definitely saw some doors closed during the pandemic, as we saw across the country, and they were brands that didn't necessarily have a long term view of what their strategy was going to look like. But we've had dozens of new brands that have opened in the last couple of years that have embraced the brick and mortar experience. It's been really important not only to measure success by sales per square foot, but also the impressions that these brands get. At a location like Malvamerica, having millions of visitors that come through our doors give them the opportunity to have that brand presence and it also allows them to have an engaging customer experience that they can't develop online.
Speaker 2:So the brands that are doing the best are the ones that have a convenient online option for customers that need that shopping opportunity and convenience of online, but it's delivering a really special and different experience in person. So you look at Lulu lemon, for example, the flagship store that they have here at Malvamerica. You cannot get that experience online to be able to have a fuel up bar, a workout studio, the engagement that they have with their fans and the customization that customers experience. So those are the types of brands that we love to invite here to Malvamerica, and so many of our stores are flagships, are ones that are leading the way and to really develop that brick and mortar physical experience.
Speaker 1:And the big E experience.
Speaker 2:It is and I use that word all the time and it's hard to find a replacement for it, because it just speaks volumes to what we are trying to deliver here. So it is the focus for a lot of the brands that are in this building, and we're seeing so many digital brands come to the physical space, because they just it's that mixture and the, the intersection that they're trying to find for success, and those are the ones that are going to be around for a while.
Speaker 1:Do you think coming out of the pandemic, the pent up demand for people just to get out and do stuff again has has really been an additional lift from all of America?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We're human. We want to have that social interaction. We were starving for it.
Speaker 2:When we were all locked down, when we reopened our doors, we weren't quite sure what was going to happen and nobody did. You know, it was out of our control of the shutdown and then what we were going to be doing to reopen, and actually it was really hard because we had to reopen in phases because of the diverse uses that we have here. Retail open first, but a lot of our attractions lagged because of capacity limitations, things like that. So it took us a while to really fully be back open. But I don't think we all knew what was possible and what we were, what we were missing when we were locked down. So people came back very strong. People were looking to re engage with the traditions that they enjoyed having, whether it was coming out with their families, their girlfriends, having date night out here so many different elements that really make that in person experience special. And we are thriving. Traffic is really strong, sales are fantastic across all different categories and there's so much in stores. We look ahead to the future.
Speaker 1:No question. Mall of America is big and it attracts a lot of people. What public safety measures are in place?
Speaker 2:Safety is our number one priority. It always has been and always will. We want to make sure, when people walk through our doors, that they feel at home, they feel safe All of us at work here. It's our home away from home, so we want to make sure that we feel safe, our families feel safe. So it's incredibly important to us, and so we have an in-house private security team that is dedicated to Mall of America.
Speaker 2:We work in collaboration with the Bloomington Police Department, so that collaboration is extremely important. There's actually an on-site police precinct here for Bloomington, and we work very closely with all of the national's affiliates as well, from the FBI and Homeland Security so a lot of connections. And it's important because we're an international destination and we need to protect this place as such, and so we have layers of security there in place everything from canines to dispatch to patrol officers, to plain clothes, closed officers to an extensive camera system and those layers, when they work together, are extremely powerful, and we do the best we can every single day to protect everyone that's in this building, from our guests to our tenants and to our employees.
Speaker 1:One of the things I've always noticed about Mall of America is there's always something new. We spoke a little bit about that earlier. What are some new experiences we can enjoy at Mall of America, either now or in the future?
Speaker 2:I mentioned a couple of them with our retailers, but we've really had a great wave of new retail that's come in and everything from Viori, which is a California inspired kind of Lululemon type of apparel. We've had Travis Matthews added to the mix for those golf fans that are out there. One of my favorites is Carl's Fishing Ventures. They're right outside of Nordstrom, on level one, and it is for the Fisher lover in your family. They have everything you can imagine and it's so perfect for Minnesota because not only do we fish in the summer but we also fish in the winter.
Speaker 2:We're kind of crazy and get on there on that it's great, but being able to see all these different brands, we want to make sure there truly is something for everyone here at Mall of America and we want to continue to add to the mix of not only retail but entertainment. I mentioned museum of illusions and wink world, but we're constantly looking for new concepts in that category as well, and dining is really important. Dining you can't do online, so it's definitely one of the uses that's important to us to continually evolve and find those opportunities that are experiential, because that's what guests want.
Speaker 1:Jill, you also have a new Halloween experience coming to Mall of America.
Speaker 2:We do. We just announced our new hot attraction. It's called the Onion Heads Revenge. It's from the makers of American Monsters and it's the first of its kind across the nation. And, of course, come here to Mall of America. We are thrilled.
Speaker 2:Of course but when we there's so many fans of haunt experiences here in this marketplace, the few that have been throughout the Twin Cities Metro have done so well and we've always had a very family friendly experience inside Nickelodeon universe or back in the day in Camp Snoopy, but we haven't really embraced the adult haunt experience. So this will literally scare you to death. I personally will not be going through this. I do not like to be scared. My team thinks it's crazy. We're going to do a little team outing but I think I need to go through with the lights on, but super excited. This opens mid September, so September 15th through October 31st. So if you are ready to get scared to death, this is a place to go.
Speaker 1:And Halloween's big business.
Speaker 2:It is big business. It's great for the retail industry. It continues to grow year over year and we're excited to have this new haunt and tickets are on sale now and they're already off and running and we're excited for a great experience.
Speaker 1:Recently, designs were made public for a future indoor water park connected to Mall of America. Can you give us a project update as?
Speaker 2:we keep ourselves fresh and new. We also always look to to grow and become bigger. So development has always been part of Mall of America's nature, and when we opened our doors back in 98, two, we always had this grand vision of about 10 million square feet of space, and we're at 5.6 right now. So we have a lot more space to develop almost double the absolutely.
Speaker 2:Both to the north and to the east of the mall, we have surface lots that we are looking to develop, and so then one of the next phases is a water park. Our sister property is both in West Edmonton, canada, as well as New Jersey, american Dream. They both have water parks that are very successful, and they're not small water parks by any means, and we don't do anything small here. Of course, everything is grand, and we want to be the largest, and not only the largest, but the best. We feel like the best is even more important, and so our water park project was supposed to break ground in 2020.
Speaker 2:And we all know what happened then, so we had to kick that can down the road a little while, and we're rebooting it this past year, and then the interest rates and the economy made it a little challenging for construction projects and anything under the development umbrella, so we had to kick the can again, but we're working really closely with the city of Bloomington, and that's what's great is. The public-private partnership that we have with the city allows us to think big and to be really creative together to continually evolve Bloomington, minnesota, to bring visitors here, to share and experience the amazing things that we have to offer. So our water park design and development continues has just been slowed down a couple of times, but sometimes those challenges just you know make us want to push it even more. We have visionaries that are part of our ownership group that have amazing ideas for us in the future, and we will continue to develop and keep things fresh for people to come back and visit time and time again. Jared Ranere.
Speaker 1:From the beginning, sustainability was core to the foundation of Mall of America. I guess you could say you were green before it's time. Can you share some examples? Tanya?
Speaker 2:Kraler, absolutely. We do say that we're like we were green before. Green was cool, and so Mall of America was built in the premise of being sustainable, and all of our projects as we move forward. It's important for us to keep that in mind, and one of the fun facts that people can't fathom is that we don't have any central heat inside Mall of America.
Speaker 1:Jared Ranere. Still crazy. I just can't imagine Tanya.
Speaker 2:Kraler, it's crazy. So being in Minnesota with cold winters, our vestibules are heated and we have a lot of 1.2 miles of skylights so that the skylight with the solar energy helps and just the body heat within the buildings. Individual stores have heat, but that's one fun fact, but the skylights are significant for the heat generation. But we also have 30,000 live plants and trees and having those live elements really create just a really great environment for our guests. And we recycle a lot. Over 60% of our waste is recycled and we go through a lot of waste here. So in addition to all the waste that we recycle, with all of our restaurants that we have, 2400 tons of food waste are recycled.
Speaker 2:They brought, they're brought to local hog farms and so we're able to look for creative ways to recycle even the food waste in our building. So it's really important, and what's sometimes challenging for our guests is they don't necessarily see recycled containers across our property, but we have a whole recycling center in the basement that they go through, you know waste and disperse it as we need to to make sure that we're an environment that takes up very seriously.
Speaker 1:What are some other fun facts about Mall of America? Because you have a lot of them.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, fun facts.
Speaker 2:Well, actually, another one that relates to sustainability is we release 100,000 ladybugs every year on Earth Day in Nickelodeon universe and it's a natural pesticide for all of our live plants and trees that are in our theme park and people always get worried because they're like, oh are there thousands of ladybugs flying around?
Speaker 2:They stay close to the food source and so they stay in the plants and the trees. But we always welcome in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and young groups to come in to help us release the ladybugs. But that's always a fun one that we have every year, and so one of the other ones we love to host Guinness Book of World Records, so we've had the largest gingerbread house. During the holiday season we have the largest gathering of teenage mutant ninja turtles when we announce one of our new rides in the park. We're always looking for creative ways to keep us top of mind, because it's really important for us to have some of the media exposure that we do get, to amplify our marketing budgets, to just keep things aware and top of mind for our brand and everything that's happening inside our building.
Speaker 1:Mall of America has been recognized by chain store age as the number one retail experience in America. How meaningful is this recognition?
Speaker 2:It means a lot. It's a lot for our team to recognize the hard work that we do every single day to keep ourselves on top. It's not always easy to always push ourselves to think new and big and how we can keep ourselves as a leader. And it's a lot of pride to be able to receive an award recognition such as that from an industry publication, and it pushes us to even want to be bigger and better.
Speaker 1:Joey Mall of America has just launched a new podcast. Can you share more details?
Speaker 2:We have. It's called so Much More and it is a podcast available on all the channels, such as this podcast, and this is kind of the thing that brands are doing and, honestly, we're the first in our industry that is out there with a podcast. We have so many stories to tell and that's what we realized turning 30 years old last year with the milestone birthday celebration is that we have so many stories and best practices to share and also challenges that we face that hopefully, when we share them, they can help other businesses, other leaders, other entrepreneurs and even young professionals coming to the business of things to consider and things to tackle. But we're really excited to be able to share our stories. So tune in to so Much More and check it out.
Speaker 1:I will definitely do that. What excites you about the future for Mall of America?
Speaker 2:That anything is possible. You know we're constantly taking risks, we're trying new things. Our team is motivated to deliver unbelievable experiences for our guests. As we look forward to the holiday season, we're always looking for ways to reinvent, but also to stay true to traditions that people come and look forward to every year. So we're just our team is motivated. We work closely together and looking to work with brands to deliver amazing memories and moments for all of our guests that come visit us every year.
Speaker 1:Jill Renzel, I really appreciate your time today. It's been a great conversation. I can tell you live and breathe Mall of America with great passion. Thanks for being our guests on the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for highlighting us. It was my pleasure.
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