The Crossings at Northwest
 | |
| Location | St. Ann, Missouri, United States |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1963 |
| Developer | Hycel Properties |
| Management | General Growth Properties |
| Owner | Somera Management, LLC |
| No. of stores and services | over 100 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 (1 vacant, 2 used as offices) |
| Total retail floor area | 1.7 million ft.² Dillard's - 217,906 ft.² Macy's - 238,493 ft.² Sears - 331,772 ft.² Steve & Barry's - 162,000 ft.² 24 Hour Fitness - 23,5000 ft.²former Burlington Coat Factory - 50,642 ft.² former Kids "Я" Us - 21,023 ft.² former Tilt! Family Entertainment Center - 43,815 ft.² former US Factory Outlets - 37,944 ft.² former Wehrenberg cinemas - 49,758 ft.² |
| No. of floors | 1 with partial upper level; food court area has 3 stories |
Northwest Plaza is a shopping mall located in St. Ann, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The largest mall in the St. Louis area, Northwest Plaza is anchored by Dillard's, Macy's, Sears, Steve & Barry's, and 24 Hour Fitness. The mall features over 100 stores, as well as a food court and 12-story office tower.
History
Northwest Plaza opened in 1963[1] as an open-air shopping center anchored by Famous-Barr, JCPenney, Sears, Stix, Baer & Fuller.[2] The Famous-Barr store featured a rotunda.[3]
Dillard's acquired the Stix, Baer & Fuller chain in 1984[4], and re-branded all the stores to Dillard's. Paramount Group, a New York-based company, acquired the mall in the same year. At the time, it was the only mall in the St. Louis area to feature four anchor stores.[5]
Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, gaining more than 200,000 square feet of retail space in the process.[5] A movie theater was added to the mall in December of that year[6], replacing a freestanding cinema complex in the mall's parking lot. Burlington Coat Factory and Kids "Я" Us were added shortly after the mall's enclosure.
Northwest Plaza was acquired in 1997 by the Westfield Group[7], who re-named the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio.
Westfield Northwest
Under Westfield's tenure, the mall saw several new stores opening. Office Max opened its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza that year[8]. Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill, American Eagle, Bath & Body Works, US Factory Outlets and other stores opened in the center. By 1999, occupancy had increased by 7%.[9]
Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation, but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a childrens' play area. Westfield also moved its regional offices to the mall's office tower.[10]
Office Max closed in 2003, and sat empty for 18 months before 24 Hour Fitness replaced it.[11] By 2004, Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest featured an occupancy rate of 79.1 percent, the second-lowest rate in the entire Westfield portfolio.[12] Burlington Coat Factory moved to St. Louis Mills in 2003; as of 2007, the former location at Northwest Plaza is still vacant.[13] Also in the early 2000s, US Factory Outlets and JCPenney closed.
2004 also saw the addition of a Retail Skills Center, the first of its kind in the Midwest.[14] The Skills Center offered recruitment, training and placement facilities for people seeking careers in retail.
Steve & Barry's University Sportswear opened in 2004 as well, replacing the spot vacated by JCPenney. The store, at the time, was the largest Steve & Barry's in the chain.[15]
The mall today
Westfield Corporation sold the mall in 2006. Somera Capital Management, LLC bought the mall for $45 million, and changed its name back to "Northwest Plaza".[16] Also in 2006,Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's. The mall's Wehrenberg movie theater complex closed the same year, as did the Tilt! family entertainment center.
Proposals to redevelop the mall in 2007 have been approved[17]; so far, it is currently unknown what the redevelopment will entail.
Trivia
- On Christmas Eve 1994, a murder occured at the mall's Famous-Barr.[13]
References
- ^ http://www.ggp.com/properties/Centerinfo.asp?smuid=838
- ^ http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/fashion/story/26282898F8144F648625721B006FE6A9?OpenDocument
- ^ http://www.urbansaintlouis.com/urbanstl/viewtopic.php?p=45012&sid=e100155172eb432894f47315b2804b3e
- ^ http://www.shareholder.com/dillards/history.cfm
- ^ a b http://joefrank.blogspot.com/2007/02/northwest-plaza-rebirth-2.html
- ^ http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6681/
- ^ http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_transactions_41/
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/1997/08/18/story7.html
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2000/01/03/tidbits.html
- ^ http://www.stlcommercemagazine.com/archives/april2003/construction.html
- ^ http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2004/01/19/tidbits1.html
- ^ http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/07/04/story3.html
- ^ a b c http://www.archibase.net/archinews/8006.html
- ^ http://www.nrf.com/content/default.asp?folder=press/release2004&file=stlskillsctr0604.htm&bhcp=1
- ^ http://www.specialtyretail.net/issues/may04/steve.htm
- ^ http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/06/05/daily55.html
- ^ http://overland-stannjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/02/23/news/sj2tn20070206-0207ovl_stann_1.ii1.txt