Ailing Jamestown Mall to get second opinion from expert panel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
September 24, 2009
By Tim Logan
The Jamestown Mall has been ailing for years.
This week it's receiving a new prescription.
The fresh opinion will come courtesy of a group of commercial real estate experts, on loan from the Urban Land Institute, who are in town for a weeklong planning blitz on the troubled north St. Louis County shopping center.
They're spending the week studying the mall and the area, talking with tenants, residents and local officials about what they would like to see Jamestown become. They'll release their findings and recommendations Friday.
It's a bid to jump-start the tired shopping center, which has seen two of its anchors go dark in recent years and was recently sold -- at a huge loss -- to a new owner.
"The Jamestown Mall has failed. It is not productive any longer," said St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley. "We need to figure out a way to make it productive for the community."
Dooley's office brought in the team from ULI. The County Economic Council is paying $120,000 for the study and hopes to come out with some fresh ideas for the mall's re-use, and a vision for where it can go from here. After the report, the county plans to hold public meetings to craft more firm plans, and
then devise a way to pay for whatever they decide to do.
Like some other older local malls, Jamestown -- isolated off Highway 67 in far north St. Louis County -- has suffered a steady decline in recent years. Empty stores line its concourses and acres of parking lot sit unused.
But it has potential, said Denny Coleman, president of the Economic Council, and tens of thousands of nearby residents with limited shopping options. "There's clearly enough purchasing power there to support good retail," Coleman said.
The mall's new owner agrees.
Mike Kohan, a New York-based real estate investor, paid $3.3 million in June to buy much of the mall -- less than half of the $8.8 million its previous owner paid in 2003 -- and since then he has been busy cutting overhead costs and trying to boost foot traffic. Part of Kohan's plan includes several of his own
stores, selling quality items at break-even prices just to get people shopping at Jamestown again.
"There's no time to waste," he said. "I promised my tenants I would do something."
But that's a short-term solution. In the long run, Kohan said the ULI report will be valuable, and that he's looking forward to working with the county to beef up Jamestown.
"It's a great idea," he said. "You've got to know what the community wants before you go about improving the mall."
What the community really wants, said Rebecca Zoll, executive director of economic development group North County Inc., is some decent places to shop. Somewhere to buy a suit or a blouse for work, with a good selection. Maybe it won't be in the traditional big enclosed-mall format. Maybe it will. The key, she said, is to figure out what people want and position Jamestown to deliver it.
"People shop differently now," Zoll said. "As those habits change, what serves those habits best? That's what we need to identify."
And doing that, Zoll hopes, will cure what ails the Jamestown Mall
