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Shopping malls. Remember them? Giggling with your posse at Northwest Plaza in the '70s. Gawking at the posters at Spencer's Gifts at Chesterfield Mall in the '80s. The video arcade in the lower level of Crestwood Plaza in the '90s.
No doubt thanks to the culture-killer called the Internet, indoor shopping malls have largely gone the way of Famous-Barr's French onion soup. Now comes news that a mall that has been on life support for years may be winking out.
Hazelwood's St. Louis Outlet Mall, FKA St. Louis Mills, has just informed most of the few remaining tenants that they have to vacate, pronto. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that there is a deal in the works to turn the space and its vast 135-acre footprint into a $92 million, sprawling indoor-outdoor sports complex dubbed POWERPlex.
Empty shopping malls have a way of spurring contemplation. The wide spaces, absent of crowds, signage, and the sounds of commerce become a sort of abandoned museum for the relics of capitalism—it's a great time to take photos.
These images were snapped in 2017. The mall, opened in 2003, had been in its "bust" phase for some time, with most stores gated shut for good, though the Regal St. Louis Mills Stadium 18 cinema was still open. (The valiantly named Hope Church had also not yet moved into the former location of the Books-a-Million bookstore.)
The lights were turned off through long arcs of the figure-eight shape of the massive building. At one point during this foray, a small band of skateboarders glided through the darkened mall, around and past this photographer, like predator-children from a cheesy post-apocalyptic movie.
The Hazelwood city fathers—and plenty of other players —are surely not overjoyed at what’s become of their investment.
So it goes.
