urbanSTL

i have found its cheaper to buy french cuff dress shirts at the northwest plaza than any other place in town. those 'pimp daddy' shops usually have a great selection. i bought a plain white french cuff'd dress shirt at macys for $85. the ghetto shops had ones just as nice and with better patterns for $20. i bought 3 and returned the macys shirt.

Tax agreement was approved by City council.



The plan is here if you have not read it yet.



I am doing a paper on St. Ann so this should provide a lot of material.



The plan lists some cool photos of the problems with NW plaza. Check out the plan starting at page 35.

I went to NWP recently and was dismayed. It was a ghost town. Many empty storefronts. I personally hate malls, but it was shocking. I had (have) shopped at NWP for years. Before the Galleria, NWP was the "go to" mainstream mall in the St. Louis region and it stayed packed. I was surprised that Macy's was still there alive and ticking. Big ups to them for hanging in there.







It's not surprising to me that average retail sales per square footage are just $44 because there are no stores. Maybe the redo will change the level of activity there.

Check out NWP's slow death from 2002 to 2007.



**Northwest Plaza 2002 and 2007 photos**

Looks like nobody wants to mess with this place.

Northwest Plaza mall on the sale block again



Somera Capital Management LLC and Zelman Development Co. are putting Northwest Plaza mall in St. Ann, Mo., up for sale for an undisclosed amount, just 20 months after the partners bought the retail center for $45 million.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stor ... 2&ana=e_du

SMSPlanstu wrote:Read the whole thing, it says that the redevelopment will still occur.

Then why are the current owners dumping the place?

My mother is a senior citizen who, until a couple months ago, walked Northwest each morning, beginning before the stores open. She has always shopped there and continues to do so occasionally-- with some hesitation-- only because it's close to her home.

She has, over time, witnessed firsthand the steady decline of foot traffic at the mall and the subsequent closing of store after store. And she is quick to relate the biggest reason why this has happened: A negative change in the general class of people who patronize this mall.

Mom has witnessed rampant shoplifting, gangster-wannabes bullying their way through the mall as if they own it, at least one assault, teens fighting and shouting foul language, and generally discourteous and disruptive behavior. The kind of behavior that causes families, senior citizens-- heck, almost any Average Joe-- think twice about ever again stepping into that particular mall.

She reports that, in recent years, many of the shoppers indeed became fearful of this atmosphere and began patronizing other area malls instead. Too, the number of seniors who once accompanied her for morning "mall walks" dwindled from dozens to maybe two or three on a good day.

The new owners of Northwest are not seeing the real picture. They think that by sprucing up the shopping monolith and adding a few new stores, the mall will somehow begin to magically flourish. But they've failed to address the underlying cause for the mall's current demise.

For Northwest to have even the slightest chance of really succeeding, the owners must put in place a workable plan for security and crowd control. They must market the mall to lure back segments of the population that have abandoned Northwest Plaza. And they will need to convince the general population that the newly-rehabbed mall is a now a safe and secure place to shop, dine, and explore. Without a doubt, these are very big hurdles.

Even if these expectations can be met, there is no guarantee that the mall will ever succeed. Certainly, many former patrons have become satisfied customers elsewhere. At best, it's a difficult challenge to regain the loyalty of customers who have been turned off or scared away.

To be honest, a facelift is just not enough. Under that shiny new exterior still lies the ugly reality.

Perhaps we should simply accept the failure of this location as a mall and consider an alternate use. This is what happened at Northland and at River Roads. The two shopping centers, once thriving and later failing, were eventually reincarnated with new lives....and not only as shopping centers. There are now government offices and a grocery store at the former Northland site. At the former River Roads site, the land was developed into 44 acres of new homes.

I support the ambition that new owners of Northwest have in bringing the old Northwest back to life as a shopping mecca. But I remain very skeptical of the chances of success.