MATA

## The MATA, Mall of All The Americas

* **Address:** 60 E Broadway, Bloomington, MN 55425, UCAS
* **Description:** Last of the Great Malls, First of the Arcologies
* **Ownership:** Plexus Industries (formerly Triple5 Group and Ghermezian Developments) a single-A real estate holding company.

“The Megamall”, “The Sprawl of America”, “Hugedale”, even before it opened, the Mall of All The Americas (then called just ‘The Mall of America’) already had a lot of nicknames. And why not? At the time it was not just the largest mall in North America, but in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest mall in the world (at the time only ‘CentralWorld’ in Bangkok surpassed it).

Construction began nearly a hundred years ago, in 1986, on the site of the former Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which had been the original home of the Minnesota Vikings and Twins teams, doors opened on August 11, 1992. Originally an imposing 390,000 m2 (4.2 m sq ft.) of floor space, it has metastasized to over a million square meters over a series of expansions over the years (starting in 2008 and most recently in 2069), hosting over a thousand stores. Even though mega-architecture has long-since surpassed these sorts of dimensions, it is still held in respect by architects worldwide as the ‘Granddaddy of the Arcology’.

While massive, one of the things that sets MATA apart from younger arcologies is its distinctively Midwestern aesthetic, sprawling out sideways instead of upwards, so while, at four floors, it’s not as tall as other arcologies (such as the 100 floors of Seattle’s SCIRE/ACHE or even the 15-20 of the closer, and smaller Block in Fargo), it has spread out to engulf all the land between Freeway 494, Old Cedar Ave S and Long Meadow Lake. The focus is also different than later arcologies in that while, say, the SCIRE/ACHE or a Proteus Arcoblock is a massive metahuman habitation that has a mall it, the MATA first and foremost a mall, that happens to have some people inhabiting it.

Despite Minnesota's cold winters, only the mall's entrances and some below ground areas are heated. Heat is allowed in through skylights above the central amusement park area. The majority of the heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices and people in the mall. In fact, even during the winter, air conditioning systems may still be in use during peak hours to ensure a comfortable shopping environment. Although the common areas are unheated, the individual stores do have heating systems.

In that massive expanse of space, a couple of thousand stores are arranged in a dozen different zones, each done up in its own distinct decorative style. The food courts are housed on the third floor, while American Theaters FunCenter houses a full-service theater and sim center on fourth. The current anchor stores are a veritable who’s-who of major businesses, with one anchor store owned by each of the AAA Prime corporations and several lesser corps…

* IKEA (EVO)
* IZZUE (Wuxing)
* Daiso (Renraku)
* Isetan Mitsukoshi (Shiawase)
* SOGO (MCT)
* Harrods (Saeder-Krupp)
* Ever Better Buy (NeoNET)
* Cozcatl (Aztechnology)
* L.L. Bean (Ares)
* The Snoopyverse (Horizon)
* American Theaters FunCenter (UbiSims)
* NuYu Clinics (Zeta-ImpChem)
* V-Mart (KITT)

Besides retail outlets, the MATA has climbing walls, a full amusement park ‘The Snoopyverse’ (maintained by Horizon), the SeaLife Minnesota Aquarium, the Harmon Killebrew Sports Center, the Mystery Cove Water Park, a full, professional-level ice rink, Neil’s Barbaric Ride, the Bass Ponds National Wildlife Refuge, over a dozen hotels and the largest LegoLand outside of Denmark.

In the lower level of the eastern parking ramp is the MATA station, the busiest transit hub in Minnesota with services to and from many destinations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The Transit Station contains two stops on the TCTA network: the southern terminus of the Blue Line (light rail) to Downtown Minneapolis via MSP Airport and Hiawatha Avenue, and the northern terminus of the Red Line (BRT) to Apple Valley. Both agencies also operate many local bus services to the Transit Station and many area hotels along with the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel offer free shuttles to their establishments.

However, beyond being a shopping and entertainment center (it is estimated that every year the MATA is visited by ten times as many people as live in the entire state of Minnesota), the MATA has grown to become a true arcology, with something like 10,000 permanent residents. The Blooming Meadows Housing Section (listed as ‘Condos’, although on a scale that, were they by themselves, would qualify as Securitracts) provides both expansive smartcondos for high-rollers and executives as well as the mass dormitories that house the on-site workers and Plexus citizens.

To meet the needs of the vast crowds of visitors and the permanent residents alike, like any good arcology, the MATA has its own emergency services. Plexus bought out Station 3 from the Bloomington Fire Department when they went extraterritorial and operates their own Fire and Rescue services, in direct employ of the mall. They have also contracted with Sanssentia to provide an in-house Level II trauma center and as sole medical provider for the MATA.

Of special note is the MATA’s security force. The Behavior Detection Officers (BDO’s) are specially trained by Israel’s Hashmira, but work directly for Plexus. They are trained in communication techniques, first aid, defensive tactics, crisis intervention, terrorism awareness and rapid response. They are taught to look for “intent, rather than means” and are both empowered and encouraged to question and detail individuals who show ‘suspicious behavior’. In the interests of public safety, BDO’s employ non-lethal methods, although in the interests of threat neutralization they push ‘non-lethal’ right out to the limits of the definition of the word. On the rare occasions that the well-trained and well-equipped BDO’s aren’t up to taking out a threat to the paying customers, the MATA can activate the elite Plexus Rangers. Ex-Rapid Response, Special Forces and Shadowrunners, these are quite possibly the scariest Mall Cops in history. And needless to say, by the time Plexus Rangers are called in, ‘non-lethal’ is no longer something they’re concerned with…

**Return to: South Minneapolis**