Years ago, teenagers may have fantasized about living in a mall.

But how about living above one as an adult?

“You ask, ‘Who would want to live above a mall?’ But it definitely has appeal … having a whole island unto yourself,” said Roseville Mayor Dan Roe.

With the big department store mall “anchor” model under duress, the management of Rosedale Center in Roseville has been floating the idea of creating a livable “village” — and has gone so far as to put out a marketing brochure on the matter.

An online leasing brochure by Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle promotes a Rosedale “village,” including 425 luxury apartments, a grocery store and green space, along with offices and a hotel.

But in a written statement Tuesday, Rosedale Center general manager Lisa Crian said widespread publication of the proposal was premature.

“Rosedale Center is working on plans for further development, and at this time, those plans are not complete or ready for distribution publicly,” Crain said, calling the brochure “a standard marketing piece that Rosedale uses to gauge retailer interest in potential projects.”

Still, conversations with city officials about the project have taken place for weeks.

“They did some initial concepts, information presentations to council members to gauge feedback,” said mayor Roe, who under the suburban city’s system is also a council member.

Roe said he didn’t believe any zoning changes would be needed for such a project. Some infrastructure work, perhaps — altering of roads to accommodate hundreds of residents, in addition to the mall’s consistently crowded lots.

The proposal has yet to be placed on any upcoming agenda, Roe noted, adding, “I don’t believe they have a time frame.” Only one of the projects in the brochure — a new, standalone restaurant named Baldamar — has had a building permit issued for it.

Both Roe and city community development director Janice Gundlach said Tuesday they were a bit startled to see the brochure — whatever its intention — posted this week.

“It’s always been emphasized that at this point it’s conceptual,” Gundlach said.

But nationally, JLL has been promoting the idea of mixed-use development in malls for many months. Even in the Twin Cities area, the idea isn’t new. In Edina, neighboring shopping malls Southdale and Galleria have been adding hotel- and multi-family residential properties on under-used parking lot space in recent years.

In a posting on its web site in January of last year, senior JLL analyst Taylor Coyne said, “Mall has become a dirty word. … Shoppes, towne center, village — these are all more localized, community-based words. And that’s what these new centers are striving for, to be part of the community.”

The in-house article touted “live-work-play” environments instead of straight retail and dining, and added, “multifamily units is by far the most popular or common strategy for malls that are adding a non-retail use. Of the 30 percent of malls that have added a secondary use, almost 41 percent of them have added multifamily.”

George John, a marketing professor in the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, noted that placing residences above retail was a thing before malls came into the picture.

Ironically, back in the 1950s when the covered mall concept began, “Everybody thought that was nuts because we were used to downtown,” John said. And downtowns always had residents. Malls, on the other hand, had lots of parking.

But shopping habits have changed — and department stores took hits from big box stores and online consumption.

“Slowly but surely they (malls) have gone to more experiential things,” like theaters, arcades and live show areas, John said. “Even there, the traditional malls are struggling.”

Will adding on-site apartments be the next step?

“Whether it will sell or not is all in the execution. You’ve got a mall surrounded by acres of parking space. It remains to be seen what people think of looking out their window and seeing a sea of cars.

“But it’s got a shot, if they execute it well.”