Photography courtesy of Khazar2Commons, Wikimedia Commons
Mayor Gregg Roby and the city of Crestwood Board of Aldermen meet bi-weekly on Tuesday nights, and few meetings go by without a question or suggestion about the future of the former Crestwood Court.
In April, the UrbanStreet Group of Chicago won the 47-acre property in an online auction for more than $3.6 million. It shed its anonymity a month later, when it announced its intentions for the million-square-feet site, which once housed one of the region’s most successful retail malls.
Almost five months have passed since Bob Burk, the company’s managing partner, released a written statement: “We look forward to working with the city of Crestwood to ensure that any future development fits within the fabric of the existing community.” Yet Crestwood residents are still wondering what UrbanStreet Group plans to do with the property.
Resident Alice Ghazarian inquired about the mall during the Board of Aldermen’s Sept. 9 meeting. Roby noted that there has been progress, but there are things “the developer does not want disclosed.”
Roby said the “second phase” of an environmental study has been completed, and Crestwood “is waiting to hear what the costs of remediation will be.”
“There has been a lot of speculation about what was happening with the mall property,” Roby said, adding that there will be no announcements from the city “until [it has] something solid.”
In May, Burk noted that UrbanStreet was considering several ideas for the property, including mixed retail and residential components. “Given its important place in Crestwood’s history, we feel an acute sense of responsibility as steward of this property,” Burk said.
Crestwood is not UrbanStreet’s first foray into the St. Louis area. Two years ago, it purchased eight properties from Michael and Steven Roberts, including Roberts Tower, Mayfair Hotel, and the Orpheum Theater. Roberts Towers was renamed The Tower at OPOP, and it now houses more than 100 luxury apartments. The Mayfair Hotel was sold to the Magnolia Hotel chain; it celebrated its opening in August.
Meanwhile, Crestwood Court sits empty. Centrum Partners of Chicago and Angelo, Gordon & Co. of New York put the mall up for auction after no plan for development could be negotiated. Centrum had paid a whopping $17.5 million for the property in 2008, but the Board of Aldermen would not approve any public financing. LensCrafters was the final tenant, and the mall’s doors were locked for good in summer 2013.
Even without air conditioning during the mall's final summer, walkers strolled the empty halls until its final day.
There are several malls throughout the U.S. that now sit empty (or have recently been leveled), and their collective creepiness can be seen here, including one where a car-chase scene was filmed for The Blues Brothers.
