ULI Recommends Town Center for Jamestown Mall, St. Louis County Seeks Community Input
St Louis American
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ULI Recommends Town Center for Jamestown Mall, St. Louis County Seeks Community Input
After a comprehensive study of Jamestown Mall, a panel of experts from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) - a nonprofit real estate development research and education organization - presented its recommendations to a standing-room only crowd last Friday at Shalom Church City of Peace in unincorporated St. Louis County.
The panel suggested that the existing Jamestown Mall be replaced with an urban town center, one that combines one-of-a-kind retail-style boutiques with other mixed-used amenities such as a community center, office space, farmers market, green space, and possibly an amphitheater.
"North County does not have the capacity to support Jamestown Mall's one-million square feet of retail simply because of the overlapping competition in the surrounding region," said Ray Brown, ULI chair of the Jamestown Mall Advisory Services Panel Study. A new, world-class town center with a variety of mixed use will create a central place -- a destination -- for the community to gather, shop and enjoy a variety of activities and services."
St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley said plans are under way to develop a series of discussions with residents, businesses, officials, and other key stakeholders to gather input and keep the process moving forward.
"The recommendations from ULI are an important first step, and standing still is not an option. We have a lot of work ahead of us. St. Louis County will host several town hall meetings to ensure we gather input from the many different constituents," said Dooley.
Those who were unable to attend last week's public forum will have the opportunity to view it over the next two weeks on News 20, the cable channel for the City of Blackjack. Channel 20 will air the hour-long ULI presentation 7 p.m., Tuesday September 29, 10 p.m., Thursday, October 1, 10 a.m., Saturday, October 3, and 4 p.m., Sunday, October 4. The presentation also will run the same times during the week of October 5. In addition, the presentation can be accessed by visiting the website of the St. Louis County Economic council (a not-for-profit economic development organization responsible for creating high-quality business and employment opportunities for long-term diversified growth throughout St. Louis County and region) at www.slcec.com.
