After trying for six years to hook L.L. Bean, the Mall of America has finally reeled in the outdoor retailer.

The Maine company will announce Tuesday that it will open a 29,000-square-foot store on Nov. 10 — L.L. Bean’s first outlet west of the Mississippi River.

“Minnesota and Maine are like kindred states with a strong appreciation for the outdoors and outdoor activities,” said L.L. Bean spokesman Mac McKeever. “Both have fantastic natural resources and residents who like to enjoy them.”

For the Mall of America, L.L. Bean brings another retailer that’s unique and new to Minnesota, said Maureen Bausch, executive vice president of business development at the MOA. “Minnesotans will be able to take a brand they’ve shopped online or in catalogs and touch it and feel it and experience it in 3-D,” she said.

The new store will be a first-floor anchor in the former Bloomingdale’s space. With Forever 21 also on the first floor and basement level, and Barbie’s Dream House on the 3rd floor, only Bloomingdale’s second-floor space has yet to be filled.

L.L. Bean is entering a crowded Twin Cities retail pond, well stocked with competitors such as St. Paul-based Gander Mountain, Cabela’s, REI, Eddie Bauer, Lands’ End and, most recently, Duluth Trading Co. L.L. Bean is hoping to nab some of Eddie Bauer’s outdoor clothing customers, REI’s campers, hikers and backpackers and Cabela’s hunters and anglers, McKeever said.

The 102-year-old company is well-known for its unconditional 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, free online shipping, and the Bean Boot, which is still being made in Maine with few changes to its original design. McKeever expects the Bean Boot to be a hit with Minnesota’s hunters, loggers and city slickers.

“The fashion community in Manhattan has embraced it as much as the dairy farmer,” he said.

Each of the stores is customized for its audience to a degree. Midwestern locations get flies for fly and bass fishing but no saltwater, for example. But nearly all stores get the Outdoor Discovery School, which McKeever describes as a “brand differentiator.” With demonstrations, clinics and hands-on activities such as archery, kayaking, stand-up paddle-boarding and fly-casting, the retailer hopes to remove barriers to participation. In 2013, more than 100,000 people participated in the programs.

Bausch describes the school as a tourist destination. “They can stop here on the way to the lake to fish or try paddle-boarding without falling in the Mississippi,” she said.

Meanwhile, L.L. Bean just had the biggest year in its history in 2013, when sales hit $1.56 billion. It will open three new stores this year, including Burlington, Vt., and the Mall of America, its 21st store.

The Mall of America gives L.L. Bean an opportunity to showcase its wares locally, regionally and internationally in one location, said Dave Brennan, co-director of the University of St. Thomas Institute for Retailing Excellence.

“I think it will fare very well, better than when Lands’ End went into Sears,” he said. “L.L. Bean is the original. All the others have followed them.”

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633