The cultural touchstone for Americans who live in suburbs might be the regional shopping mall: a climate-controlled substitute for the small-town Main Street that few metro-area cities have been able to recreate.
For local residents — and folks from Chanhassen, Shakopee, Waconia, Glencoe and beyond — that suburban icon is Eden Prairie Center, a sprawling mass of concrete, brick, steel and glass that sprouted from pioneer farm fields and in 2026 is marking its 50th year of operation as a regional shopping center.
Longtime resident Danny Kurtz was there for its start in 1976. As a 14-year-old working his first job, Kurtz was part of a small group of Eden Prairie teens who worked at night to clean the mall’s common areas and wax the floors so everything was ready for shoppers the next day. The job, he recalls, paid less than $2 per hour. Later he would work in the mall’s food court area and as a cook and dishwasher in the restaurants inside the Powers department store…