Crestwood shopping mall hits low point after half-century
Suburban Journals
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
By Jim Merkel
At 88, Frances Dohr is old enough to remember what Crestwood Plaza was like when it opened in the 1950s.
"All the stores were so nice," said Dohr, of Affton.
Dohr would shop at Famous-Barr, while her son John shopped at Sears.
Dohr loved it when the crowded plaza changed from a place where stores opened to the outside to a crowded mall with stores opening to inside hallways.
"I think malls are wonderful. They're not outside, and you can really relax and enjoy shopping," she said.
Now crowds are gone from the 1.1 million-square-foot mall, which its latest owners have renamed "Crestwood Court."
So are many of the stores.
"It's heartbreaking. I wish it were like it used to be," Dohr said.
Dohr is not alone, as the mall's decline pinched budgets of Crestwood and the Lindbergh School District.
Things were different in 1998, when Westfield America, Inc., bought the mall at Watson and Sappington roads from Crestwood Plaza Shopping Center LLC, an affiliate of Hycel Properties Co.
The building and land were sold for $99.3 million, according to the St. Louis County Department of Revenue.
With Famous-Barr, Dillards, Sears and other smaller stores, the plaza was a regional gold mine.
But the center started emptying in recent years. Dillard's closed in 2007 and Macy's (formerly Famous-Barr) this spring. Last year, Westfield sold the plaza to a partnership of Centrum Properties of Chicago and Angelo, Gordon and Company Investments of New York City.
The purchase price of the building and land was $17.5 million, according to the St. Louis County Department of Revenue.
So what happened?
"Developers just built too much retail in general," St. Louis County Economic Council President and CEO Denny Coleman said, "You can see the result in a lot of vacant retail space."
The economic council recently spent $120,000 to study another deteriorating mall, Jamestown Mall in Florissant. Consultants hired by the county proposed tearing down Jamestown Mall and starting over with mixed uses that would include stores, green spaces and recreational facilities.
The concept of an enclosed mall no longer is popular, said economic council spokeswoman Nancy Schnoebelen. The new model is a destination where people can enjoy lattes at outdoor cafes, go to a dentist or enjoy a variety of other activities, she said.
Meanwhile, Crestwood Court "will be redeveloped into a new, vital retail and entertainment lifestyle center to better serve the marketplace," its web site said.
The owners won't say more.
"I'm not prepared to talk about the redevelopment at this point," said Crestwood Court General Manager Tony Stephens, who is a spokesperson for the owners.
The court took a step in 2008 when it offered vacant space to arts groups. "It's very unique and very exciting. It's been well received by the public," Stephens said.
Arts groups love the idea.
"It brings all of the arts together and they get to work together," said Judy Rethwisch, executive director of Affton Center Stage and chairman of the Metro South Arts Council, two groups in the mall.
But taxing districts would like to see the redevelopment itself.
"As Macy's and Dillard's and other businesses have left the court, it's lowered the city's sales tax, which affected our budget," said Jim Eckrich, Crestwood's city administrator.
Crestwood saw the decline coming and prepared for cutbacks, Crestwood Mayor Roy Robinson said.
Crestwood cut about 40 jobs since 2006 by attrition, both because of what happened at Crestwood Court and the economy's decline.
Crestwood was unable to supply exact figures on how much sales tax revenue was lost with the closing of the major stores.
Crestwood Court tax revenue to Lindbergh School District dropped about $600,000 since 2005, Lindbergh Assistant Superintendent for Finance Patrick Lanane said.
The lost revenue would have paid salaries and benefits for about a dozen teachers, he said. The district wound up cutting 12 teaching positions this year, both because of the reductions at Crestwood Court and because of a drop in tax revenue throughout the district.
"There's a lot of developers waiting for credit markets to open up," Lanane said. "Hopefully, that's only on hold."
In the meantime, Dohr wonders if things ever will be the same at Crestwood Court. "I can't see how it could because the economy's so bad," she said.
