Southdale Edina Liquor Store Closed for Remodel

One of Edina's three municipal liquor stores will be closed for the next month as it is "gutted and redesigned" to provide customers a more contemporary shopping experience.

The Southdale  location, which closed on Feb. 6, is expected to reopen on March 12. Steve Grausam, liquor operations director for Edina, said the new changes will "make the store much more elegant." The Southdale shop is Edina's largest municipal liquor store.

"Sixteen years is a long time for a store to not have any major remodeling done," Grausam said. "We want to keep up with trends and we don't want the store to get so rundown that you have to spend twice as much money to do a remodeling job."

The project is estimated to cost $300,000, though Grausam said even with a few late additions to the original plan—LED lights in the beer cooler and a new front door—it's expected to come in well under budget.

Substantial changes are being made to the store, including:

• A permanent tasting area with an enclosed display space.
• Revamping the store's layout to help foot traffic flow more naturally and allow employees a better view of the entire store.
• Moving liquor near the cash registers and relocating wine to the back of the store.
• A redesigned entrance, with new interior and exterior doors.
• New flooring, checkout counters and lighting throughout the store.
• A fresh coat of paint, focused on earth tones.

Richfield-based Tushie Mongtomery Architects and Shakopee's Greystone Construction are handling the project. Grausam said it's actually the very same team he worked with nearly a decade ago, when he oversaw a similar remodeling at the store. Employees at the Southdale store will temporarily work at the city's two other stores during the remodeling.

"If we can keep our total sales loss under 10 percent, everyone would be really happy," Grausam said of the anticipated drop in business during the remodeling. "We'll have to keep our fingers crossed people know they can still shop at our ."