St. Louis Mills

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St. Louis Mills Mall

St. Louis Mills, a.k.a. "The Mills", is a shopping center in Hazelwood, Missouri, just off of MO 370. When it opened in November 2003, it had over 200 specialty shops and 8 anchor stores[1]. It is a venture investment by the Mills Corporation that offers many retail stores and entertainment attractions. The newest addition to the Mills will be a 130,000-square-foot Cabela's store opening in April of 2007.

1 Neighborhoods
2 Attractions
3 Trivia
4 Anchors & Majors
5 Media Attention
6 External links

[edit] Neighborhoods

St. Louis Mills is divided up in to six sectors called neighborhoods; each neighborhood has a different theme that contributes to the overall design, decoration, and attractions in that area of the mall. For example, the "SportStreet" area features wood floors like those found on a basketball court, and contains the NASCAR Speedpark, and IceZone ice skating rink, which both are sports-related attractions. Neighborhood themes include:

High Drama Oasis
Chandelier Court
PBS Kids Backyard
Tree Oasis
SportStreet
Circus of Fire
Shakespeare in the Park Oasis

Each area of the mall features decorations, artwork, and colors in line with its namesake. Throughout the mall, there are several sets of projection TVs hanging from the ceiling, showing video loops of music videos and advertisements.

[edit] Attractions

[edit] Family and kids

A section of neighborhood 5, near the mall's foodcourt, is sponsored by PBS. The sponsored area features advertisements for PBS, as well as two indoor playgrounds for children named "PBS Kids Backyard" and "A Place to Grow". These children's areas hold regularly scheduled family-oriented events called "Muggsy's Meadow", which are uniformly featured at all of the Mills Properties-owned malls. "Muggsy's Meadow" features product tie-ins offered by the Mills Properties.

[edit] Mall walking

Sponsored by a local St. Louis Christian Hospital, the "No Loafers Walking Club" meets daily at the mall and walks a one-mile course within the mall from 7am to 10am, before any of the mall stores open for the day. The hospital sponsors prizes for club members meeting fitness milestones, as well hosts education programs on the second Tuesday of every month on varying health-related topics.[2]

[edit] Other attractions

Since the mall opened in 2003, the IceZone skating rink has been designated as the official practice facility of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. The rink offers free bleacher seating for fans during practice sessions.[3]

The mall has hosted an annual RV show, called the "Fall RV Show at St. Louis Mills," featuring over 300 RVs in the parking lot between entrances one and two. The show is held for one weekend in September with free admission[4]. The show features new models for the upcoming year, as well as year-end closeouts. Barbecue is sold on-site to benefit the area Lions Club [5].

The NASCAR Speedpark includes an indoor/outdoor go-gart race track & sometimes features appearances by NASCAR drivers such as Kevin Harvick, having them meet with fans and sign autographs.[6]

The mall has often plays host to sponsored events such as video game tournaments. Past examples include the 2005 EA Sports Madden Challenge[7], World Wide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day 2005 event[8], the PlayStation Big Hook Up skateboarding competition[9] and the 2005 "St. Louis Mills Celebrates the Final Four" featuring local radio station KSHE 95 with sponsorship by Coca-Cola [10].

[edit] Trivia

The mall's walkway forms a one-mile long track with wood, tile, and carpeted floors.

The Woodward Skatepark was previously named the ESPN X-Games Skatepark, but in early 2005 the Skatepark lost its ESPN sponsorship. It was temporarily named the St. Louis Mills Skatepark before being bought by Woodward. It is currently closed.

Empty Storefronts are covered by black canvas which have inspirational quotes such as "What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other. -- George Eliot." written on them[11].

[edit] Anchors & Majors

According to the latest map, St. Louis Mills has sixteen anchor spaces.

Bed Bath & Beyond (29,903 sq. ft.)
Books-A-Million (20,158 sq. ft.)
Burlington Coat Factory (81,020 sq. ft.)
Cabela's (opening April 2007, 132,076 sq. ft.)
Circuit City (34,512 sq. ft.)
Ice Zone (52,134 sq. ft.)
Marshalls (50,175 sq. ft.)
NASCAR Speedpark (63,244 sq. ft.)
Nike Outlet (15,091 sq. ft.)
Off Broadway Shoe (24,974 sq. ft.)
Old Navy (16,725 sq. ft.)
Regal Cinemas 18 (83,688 sq. ft.)
Restaurant Space (26,533 sq. ft.)(Vacant)
Retail Space (28,787 sq. ft.) (Vacant)
Sears Outlet (25,031 sq. ft.)
Woodward Skatepark (33,038 sq. ft., opening soon)

[edit] Media Attention

St. Louis Mills began operating a parental escort policy on Friday and Saturday nights after 6pm to prevent individuals under the age of 17 from loitering in the mall without an adult. Several other malls across Missouri implemented similar policies after fights at those shopping centers. Under the policy, individuals under age 17 must have an escort ages 21 or older with them on Friday and Saturday nights after 6pm. This policy does not apply to the individual stores and attractions, just the common areas of the Mills and the food court.