The Crossings at Northwest

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The Crossings at Northwest
Map
LocationSt. Ann, Missouri, United States
Opening date1963[1]
DeveloperHycel Properties
ManagementGeneral Growth Properties
OwnerSomera Management, LLC
No. of stores and services~50[1]
No. of anchor tenants5 (4 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area1,700,000 square feet (157,935.2 m2)
No. of floors1 with partial upper level; food court area has 3 stories

Northwest Plaza is an enclosed shopping mall located in St. Ann, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The largest mall in the St. Louis area[2][3], the mall comprises more than 1,700,000 square feet (157,935.2 m2) of gross leasable area. The mall features about 50 stores (120 at peak), as well as a food court and 12-story office tower; anchor stores include Dillard's Clearance Center, Macy's, Sears and Steve & Barry's.[1][4] General Growth Properties manages the mall, which is owned by Somera Management, LLC.

History

Open-Air Mall

Northwest Plaza opened in 1963[5] as an open-air shopping center[3] anchored by Famous-Barr, JCPenney, Sears, and Stix Baer & Fuller. Junior anchors included local department stores Vandervoort's (opened in 1965)[6] and Boyd's (an upscale apparel store), a Walgreen's pharmacy, and a two-story Woolworth dime store.[7] The Famous-Barr store also featured a rotunda (a feature retained by the building's current tenant, Macy's). At the time that Northwest Plaza opened, it was the only mall in the St. Louis area to feature four major department stores. When Vandervoort's closed, its building was leased by Famous-Barr to use as its home fashions store while the basement was leased to Venture Stores for office space. Dillard's acquired and re-branded all of the Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984;[8]the same year, New York-based Paramount Group acquired the mall.

Enclosure

Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, adding more than 200,000 square feet (18,580.6 m2) of retail space in the process. The biggest change was remodeling the Famous-Barr home store/Venture office space into a mixed-use complex. A huge Tilt! arcade was opened in the basement, the main level became a food court, and a nine-screen movie theater was added on the upper level.[9], replacing a freestanding cinema complex in the mall's parking lot. Kids "Я" Us was also added shortly after the mall's enclosure, and the large Woolworth store was shuttered. Woolworth was divided between a Phar-Mor pharmacy on the lower level and smaller stores (EXPRESS and Victoria's Secret) on the upper level, while Oshman's SuperSports USA moved into the former Boyd's. In the mid 1993 Phar-Mor closed due to a corporate scandal that threw the company into bankruptcy.

Westfield

Northwest Plaza was acquired in 1997 by the Westfield Group[10], who re-named the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest" in June 2005) to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio. Under Westfield's tenure, the mall saw several new stores opening. Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997.[11] Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Oshman's, Schweig Engel Furniture moved into the old Phar-Mor, and many other stores: Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill, American Eagle Outfitters, and Bath & Body Works. Gap, which had closed in 1996, even opened a new store. By 1999, occupancy had increased by 7%.[12] Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation, but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a children's play area. Around this time, Westfield focused more on driving customer business to other area malls such as West County Center in Des Peres and Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, in turn neglecting Northwest Plaza, along with its redevelopment and upkeep. The first major vacancy at Northwest Plaza was JCPenney in 2002. There were also minor crime problems at Northwest Plaza, the second lowest occupancy rate in a Westfield mall (Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest had an occupancy rate of seventy-nine percent) [13] and in 2003, St. Louis Mills opened and Northwest Plaza's store loss quickly picked up speed.

OfficeMax was one of the first casualties, closing in 2003, and remaining vacant for eighteen months before being replaced by 24 Hour Fitness.[14] By 2004, Burlington Coat Factory also left that year to move to St. Louis Mills mall in 2003; as of 2007, their former location at Northwest Plaza was still vacant [15] but it was soon rented out to Ford Motor Company.[16] Schweig Engel Furniture also closed around the same time. It was briefly replaced with discount retailer US Factory Outlets before becoming vacant again. Furniture retailer IKEA had also planned to open a store at the mall, but later withdrew its plans.[15]

2004 also saw the addition of a Retail Skills Center, which offered training and placement facilities for people seeking careers in retail, the first such center in the Midwest,[17] and discount clothing retailer Steve & Barry's University Sportswear in the former JCPenney. At the time Steve & Barry's opened, it was the largest in the chain.[18] The mall's movie theater complex closed in late 2005.[19] and the arcade as well. The arcade which once featured skee-ball, basketball, air hockey, mini-golf, and a variety of arcade games[20] but by the end of 2005, it was no more.

Somera

After years of decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in 2006 to Somera Capital Management, LLC. After having bought the mall for $45 million,[21] with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent, the mall's name reverted to Northwest Plaza.[4][22] As per the Federated Stores/May Co. merger, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's. Somera soon began creating a redevelopment plan, which was approved by the city of St. Ann in 2007.[23]

Somera unveiled a redevelopment plan in which the mall would become Lindbergh Town Center. In the plan, a small part of the Macy's hallway plus the former Kids R Us would be turned into a lifestyle center. The Dillard's and the hallway between it and Sears would become a new anchor, plus the old food court/theater/Tilt would be turned into another anchor. The remaining mall was to be renovated to feature a new "picnic inspired" food court (on the upper level of the former Woolworth's), new flooring, new paint, new skylights, a "Secret Garden" themed play area, and a feature coffee kiosk.[24]

Post-Somera

However, plans didn't materialize and Somera unexpectedly sold the mall. Wal-Mart Supercenter is expected to come in as the mall when the lease of Dillard's expires in June.[25]Meanwhile, the rest of the mall will be reconfigured to allow more exterior access-only stores and offices.[26] It will soon be redeveloped in a $250 million plan.

References

  1. ^ a b c d General Growth Properties, Inc. - Center information for Northwest Plaza
  2. ^ Northwest Plaza fills up; Mark Hinrichs reaches out
  3. ^ a b Somera Capital Management - View Release
  4. ^ a b Somera Capital Management - View Properties
  5. ^ http://www.ggp.com/properties/Centerinfo.asp?smuid=838
  6. ^ http://www.dshistory.com/stores/scruggs_vandervroot_barney_/
  7. ^ STLtoday - Life & Style - Fashion
  8. ^ Dillard's.com | Investor Relations
  9. ^ Cinema Treasures | Northwest 9 Cine'
  10. ^ Transactions
  11. ^ Unorthodox approach has Northwest Plaza 96% filled - St. Louis Business Journal:
  12. ^ Northwest Plaza fills up; Mark Hinrichs reaches out - St. Louis Business Journal:
  13. ^ Power Shopping - St. Louis Business Journal:
  14. ^ Sweet dreams - St. Louis Business Journal:
  15. ^ a b Architecture Portal News: Northwest Plaza may find new life with new owner
  16. ^ http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/389D011C11B51D98862573EA000EDFAD?OpenDocument
  17. ^ The National Retail Federation
  18. ^ FEATURE: Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear
  19. ^ CinemaTreasures |Northwest 9 Ciné
  20. ^ St. Louis - Best Of - Best Video-Game Arcade - Tilt Video Arcade (2001) - Riverfront Times
  21. ^ Westfield completes $47M Northwest Plaza sale - St. Louis Business Journal:
  22. ^ BUSINESS DEALS
  23. ^ Overland-St. Ann Journal | News | St. Ann takes first step in mall redevelopment
  24. ^ http://www.stannmo.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=131
  25. ^ http://northcountyjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/03/01/news/sj2tn20080219-0220ovl-plaza0.ii1.txt
  26. ^ Northwest Plaza mall on the sale block again - St. Louis Business Journal:

External links

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