Northwest Plaza

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Northwest Plaza
Facts and statistics
Location St. Ann, Missouri, United States
Opening date 1963[1]
Developer Hycel Properties
Management General Growth Properties
Owner Somera Management, LLC
No. of stores and services over 120[1]
No. of anchor tenants 5 (4 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area 1,700,000 square feet (157,935.2 m²)
No. of floors 1 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 over 120 stores, as well as a food court and 12-story office tower; anchor stores include Dillard's, Macy's, Sears and Steve & Barry's University Sportswear.[1][4] General Growth Properties manages the mall, which is owned by Somera Management, LLC.

Contents

[edit] History

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 Vandevoort's and Boyd's, a Walgreens pharmacy, and a two-story Woolworth dime store.[6] 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 Vandevoort's closed, its building was leased by Famous-Barr to use as its home fashions store. Famous moved out of the building in 1987 when the mall was enclosed, and the Vandevoort's building was torn down to make way for the new three-level addition (featuring the food court, movie theater, and Tilt!). Dillard's acquired and re-branded all of the Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984;[7]the same year, New York-based Paramount Group acquired the mall.

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. A movie theater was added to the mall in December of that year[8], 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. Oshman's closed by 1997; the stores were later replaced with Schweig Engel Furniture and Burlington Coat Factory, respectively.

Northwest Plaza was acquired in 1997 by the Westfield Group[9], who re-named the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest") to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio.

[edit] Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest

Under Westfield's tenure, the mall saw several new stores opening. Office supply store chain Office Max opened its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997.[10] Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill, American Eagle Outfitters, Bath & Body Works and other stores opened in the center, and Gap, which had closed in 1996, opened a new store. By 1999, occupancy had increased by 7%.[11] 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. Arround 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 it's redevelopment and upkeep. Office Max closed in 2003, and remained vacant for eighteen months before being replaced by 24 Hour Fitness.[12] By 2004, Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest had an occupancy rate of seventy-nine percent, the second-lowest occupancy rate in the entire Westfield portfolio.[13] Burlington Coat Factory moved to the nearby St. Louis Mills mall in 2003; as of 2007, their former location at Northwest Plaza is still vacant.[14] JCPenney closed in 2002, and Schweig Engel Furniture also closed around the same time. The latter 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.[14]

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.[15] Discount clothing retailer Steve & Barry's University Sportswear opened in 2004 in the former JCPenney; at the time it opened, it was the largest Steve & Barry's in the chain.[16] The mall's movie theater complex closed in late 2005.[17]

[edit] Somera

Westfield Corporation sold the mall in 2006. Somera Capital Management, LLC bought the mall for $45 million,[18] with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent.[4][19] Also in 2006, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's, as Macy's parent company (Federated Stores, now known as Macy's, Inc.) acquired the May Co., who owned the Famous-Barr chain.

Proposals to redevelop the mall in 2007 have been approved[20]. Somera has indicated that it plans to reconfigure the shopping center's layout[4]. The center would be renamed Lindbergh Town Center. In an earlier plan, about seventy-five percent of the mall would be disenclosed and turned into a lifestyle center, however, newer plans may change that. The remaining mall was to be renovated to feature a new food court and restrooms, as well as a soft play area for children.[21]

[edit] New Plans

However, Somera unexpectedly sold the mall. Wal-Mart Supercenter is expected to come in as the mall is reconfigured to allow more exterior access-only stores and offices.[22]

Update - NorthWest Plaza is continuing to decline, with most of the retail space vacant in spite of the anchor stores. It is also up for sale again. "The shopping center is subject to a $249.5 million redevelopment agreement with the city of St. Ann, which includes up to $96 million in approved public redevelopment assistance. The redevelopment will allow up to 480,000 square feet of new office space and will reconfigure the shopping center to increase the amount of exterior-oriented retail." [23]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c 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 c Somera Capital Management - View Properties
  5. ^ http://www.ggp.com/properties/Centerinfo.asp?smuid=838
  6. ^ STLtoday - Life & Style - Fashion
  7. ^ Dillard's.com | Investor Relations
  8. ^ Cinema Treasures | Northwest 9 Cine'
  9. ^ Transactions
  10. ^ Unorthodox approach has Northwest Plaza 96% filled - St. Louis Business Journal:
  11. ^ Northwest Plaza fills up; Mark Hinrichs reaches out - St. Louis Business Journal:
  12. ^ Sweet dreams - St. Louis Business Journal:
  13. ^ Power Shopping - St. Louis Business Journal:
  14. ^ a b Architecture Portal News: Northwest Plaza may find new life with new owner
  15. ^ The National Retail Federation
  16. ^ FEATURE: Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear
  17. ^ CinemaTreasures |Northwest 9 Ciné
  18. ^ Westfield completes $47M Northwest Plaza sale - St. Louis Business Journal:
  19. ^ BUSINESS DEALS
  20. ^ Overland-St. Ann Journal | News | St. Ann takes first step in mall redevelopment
  21. ^ http://www.ggp.com/properties/malltemplate.asp?smuid=838
  22. ^ Northwest Plaza mall on the sale block again - St. Louis Business Journal:
  23. ^ Northwest Plaza mall on the sale block again - St. Louis Business Journal:

[edit] External links