Bandai Namco Postpones Mall of America Store Openings
The delay leaves Bandai Namco's mall-based retail push in the United States without a confirmed Midwest anchor, after the New York City Cross Store and the Chicago Gundam Base opened.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Bandai Namco Amusement America announced on Sunday that the planned openings of Bandai Namco Cross Store Minneapolis and The Gundam Base Minneapolis at the Mall of America are postponed from their September 30 date. The company said it will share the new opening date once it is confirmed. The two stores were to join Bandai Namco's existing North American locations in New York City and Chicago.
Bandai Namco Amusement America has not set a replacement date for the two Mall of America stores, saying only that it will share one once confirmed. The Minnesota locations were to follow the Bandai Namco Cross Store in Brooklyn, New York City, which opened in February 2025 with 10 department shops, and the Gundam Base in Rosemont, Illinois, outside Chicago, which opened in December 2025.
Both concepts have deeper histories elsewhere. Bandai Namco Amusement runs 13 Cross Store locations in Japan and opened its first outside Japan in Camden, London, in August 2023, followed by one in Birmingham. Gundam Base stores number more than 30 worldwide, with the first in Korea in 2003 and the Tokyo location opened in 2017.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.