Mall of America expansion on schedule

The project – which includes a 14-story, 342-room J.W. Marriott hotel, a 180,000-square-foot office tower, and 165,000 square feet of new retail – is rising up on the southeast quadrant of Lindau Lane and Highway 77.

Golden Valley-based Mortenson Construction has topped off all of the buildings, said Schane Rudlang, port authority administrator for the city of Bloomington, which is kicking in $34 million in tax increment financing for project-related street improvements.

The hotel will be open for its first guests in November, and retail and office space will be ready for occupancy in August or September, Rudlang said.

Rudlang said about 450 craftspeople are on the site now for the 750,000-square-foot expansion. Those numbers will go up soon when drywall work begins, he said. The workforce has previously ranged from 200 to 250, he said.

As Finance & Commerce has reported, site work on the north side of the 4.2-million-square-foot mall started in March 2014.

The original mall opened in 1992 after three years of construction.

Triple Five Worldwide, which owns the mall, is partnering on the project with Mortenson Development and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux.