Seven Points is an indoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

opened on February 15, 1984, at the southeast corner of

Hennepin Avenue Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery (at West 36th Street), north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the Virginia Triangle, the former "Bottleneck" a ...

and West Lake Street, the main intersection of the Uptown district of

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. The building was previously known as Calhoun Square until October 2020.

History

The atrium-style indoor mall was created in an early 1980s style of redevelopment by local developer Ray Harris from a series of older buildings, including the Geanakoplos Building (1917). In the early stages, neighborhood activists opposed to the project started the "Dump Updale" campaign. "Up" referred to Uptown; "dale" was a reference to suburban shopping malls in the Twin Cities whose names end in "dale" (e.g.

Southdale Center Southdale Center is a shopping mall located in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. It opened in 1956 and is both the first and the oldest fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. Southdale Center has of le ...

Ridgedale Center Ridgedale Center, colloquially known as Ridgedale, is an enclosed shopping mall in Minnetonka, Minnesota, a western suburb of the Twin Cities. It is directly located off I-394/US 12 between Ridgedale Drive and Plymouth Road ( Hennepin CSAH 61). R ...

). Harris's renovation and construction was finished in 1983, and he remained the owner until he sold the mall in 2004 to a Des Moines, IA, investment group. In 2007 Calhoun Square was sold to an affiliate of New York-based BlackRock Inc. for $47.3 million. After a 2008 renovation, the mall drew new national and international names, including

LA Fitness LA Fitness (doing business as LA Fitness International LLC) is an American gym chain with more than 700 clubs across the United States and Canada. The company was formed in 1984 and is based in Irvine, California. History LA Fitness was founde ...

, H&M, and CB2. Local ownership returned in 2014 when developer Stuart Ackerberg bought the mall from BlackRock, seeking to restore “the magic and the sizzle of Calhoun Square going back to the 1980s", when many of the tenants were local operators. The Ackerberg Group completed a remodel of the mall's interior in 2015. The musician

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

wrote a song titled "Calhoun Square", released on disc two of his ''Crystal Ball'' CD. Chicago-based investment firm Northpond Partners purchased the building for $34.5 million in October 2019. On June 19, 2020, the owners of the building announced that Calhoun Square's name would be changed "to disavow the slavery advocate for which the building was originally named,"

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...

. This follows the 2017 decision to rename the nearby lake from Lake Calhoun to

Bde Maka Ska Bde Maka Ska (, previously named Lake Calhoun, its former official designation) is the largest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking tra ...

, as well as the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

. On October 21, 2020, the owners announced that the building would now be known as Seven Points, stating “A property named for a known racist and champion of slavery has no place in Minneapolis or anywhere in our society.” The new name refers to the pointed sign atop the roof of the building. Ownership also set forth a conceptual vision for the building that includes an outdoor plaza addition, a market store, and “flexible mixed-use space” that includes retail, office and residential components.

References

External links

Calhoun Square official website
Shopping malls in Minnesota Shopping malls established in 1983 Buildings and structures in Minneapolis Shopping malls in Hennepin County, Minnesota Tourist attractions in Minneapolis 1983 establishments in Minnesota Name changes due to the George Floyd protests {{US-mall-stub