Jamestown Mall, which helped kill River Roads Mall & Northland Shopping Center, is now getting a taste of its own medicine.
The mall has been open since the early 1970's and in its heyday featured two anchor stores (Sears and Stix, Baer & Fuller) numerous traditional mall stores (Kay Bee, Waldenbooks, 5-7-9) and a plethora of restaurants like Ground Round, Dillard's Garden Room, A&W, Hot Sam's and so on. The mall was built in Florissant, which was at the time a middle class suburb with employers like McDonnell-Douglas, Monsanto, Mallinkrodt, Ford, and many others. In other words, lots of people had good paying jobs with lots of money to spend at the mall.
But, in the mid 80's the demographic of the city changed, as many of the middle class families moved to St. Charles county (a.k.a. "white flight") and were replaced by less affluent families from the city of St. Louis, also marking a change in the racial demographic of the area, and some of the upscale mall stores began to lose money and closed over a several year period. At one point, I remember an entire wing of the mall (which had housed The Ground Round, a Buster Brown shoe store and Cinema I & II) was completely empty, and in the mid 1990s that wing was demolished as part of an expansion which added a JC Penney and a Famous Barr along with several mall storefronts, and a food court, but the expansion has failed to reverse the mall's decline.
By 1999, an entire side of the Dillard's wing was closed to make way for Wehrenberg Theatres to build a 14-screen multiplex, and I get the impression the new theater isn't doing that well either. (the other day I saw the marquee advertising reduced ticket prices on matinees--$3.75 for a 1st run show). The JC Penney was converted to an outlet store just a few years after it opened, I never see many customers at the Sears store any more, and just a few weeks ago, Dillards announced it is closing it's 3-story store at the mall.
Retail common sense tells me that "already struggling mall + empty department store = nail in the coffin."
Other Email Contributions:
Jeremy Webb’s Commentary:
User submitted Jan 2012
These pictures are taken by me. I have the originals. Uploaded for examples.
Jamestown Mall opened in 1973 on the suburban fringe of the greater St. Louis metropolitan area
in north St. Louis County. Since the opening of the mall, new regional shopping destinations located
closer to larger populations of shoppers have dominated the trade area of Jamestown Mall causing
a decline in sales and foot traffic. Today, the mall is characterized by vacant, crumbling parking lots
with corn growing in undeveloped outparcels. St. Louis County and the St. Louis County Economic
Council commissioned Dover, Kohl & Partners in 2010 to act as an extension of County staff to create
a conceptual plan for the redevelopment of the Jamestown Mall that balances the interests of the
community, property owners, developers, and County. It was determined that in order for the site
to compete with the newer retail formats emerging closer to large concentrations of consumers, the
Jamestown Mall site needs to become a walkable place, with shared parking, housing, and workplaces
in a mixed environment that provides on-site support for retail activities. The plan also provides a
more predictable outcome allowing redevelopment of this greyfield to occur over time in incremental
steps as the market demands. When complete, the area plan offers opportunities for families to live
in a walkable village, close to shops and employment within the north County community. Dover, Kohl
& Partners worked together with Urban Advisors, H3 Studio, Vector Communications, and Stock and
Associates to create the Jamestown Mall Area Plan.
Google Alerts’s Commentary:
User submitted May 2011
News
1 new result for deadmalls
Big Reveal on Future of Jamestown Mall Set for Thursday
Riverfront Times
By Sarah Fenske, Tue., May 24 2011 at 8:30 AM There are dead malls across America, littering the nation's suburbs like so many pieces of yesterday's trash. ...
Riverfront Times
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Jeremy Webb’s Commentary:
User submitted Jan 2012These pictures are taken by me. I have the originals. Uploaded for examples.
https://picasaweb.google.com/zargeus/JamestowmMallFlorissantMo?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Plan for mall: http://www.doverkohl.com/files/pdf/Jamestown%20Mall_low%20res.pdf
Taken from PDF:
Jamestown Mall opened in 1973 on the suburban fringe of the greater St. Louis metropolitan area
in north St. Louis County. Since the opening of the mall, new regional shopping destinations located
closer to larger populations of shoppers have dominated the trade area of Jamestown Mall causing
a decline in sales and foot traffic. Today, the mall is characterized by vacant, crumbling parking lots
with corn growing in undeveloped outparcels. St. Louis County and the St. Louis County Economic
Council commissioned Dover, Kohl & Partners in 2010 to act as an extension of County staff to create
a conceptual plan for the redevelopment of the Jamestown Mall that balances the interests of the
community, property owners, developers, and County. It was determined that in order for the site
to compete with the newer retail formats emerging closer to large concentrations of consumers, the
Jamestown Mall site needs to become a walkable place, with shared parking, housing, and workplaces
in a mixed environment that provides on-site support for retail activities. The plan also provides a
more predictable outcome allowing redevelopment of this greyfield to occur over time in incremental
steps as the market demands. When complete, the area plan offers opportunities for families to live
in a walkable village, close to shops and employment within the north County community. Dover, Kohl
& Partners worked together with Urban Advisors, H3 Studio, Vector Communications, and Stock and
Associates to create the Jamestown Mall Area Plan.
Google Alerts’s Commentary:
User submitted May 2011News
1 new result for deadmalls
Big Reveal on Future of Jamestown Mall Set for Thursday
Riverfront Times
By Sarah Fenske, Tue., May 24 2011 at 8:30 AM There are dead malls across America, littering the nation's suburbs like so many pieces of yesterday's trash. ...
Riverfront Times
Tip: Use quotes ("like this") around a set of words in your query to match them exactly. Learn more.
Remove this alert.
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Manage your alerts.