 Southland Center was designed by Victor Gruen Associates and Louis G. Redstone Associates, and the newly formed Dayton-Hudson Corporation (a merger of Dayton's of Minneapolis and Hudson's of Detroit) developed the mall.When opened in 1970, Southland Mall was originally anchored by a three-level; Hudson's at the center of the mall and junior-anchored by a Woolworth's dime store off the center court and a Kroger supermarket on the eastern side.A two-screen movie theater, located off the west court, opened just weeks after the rest of the mall.