Jamestown Mall

Officials from St. Louis County held an open house Monday night to give north county residents a chance to offer suggestions on what should replace the shuttered Jamestown Mall.

The mall located in Florissant, closed  in 2014. in Florissant, Missouri. Opened in 1973, the mall formerly included Dillard's, JCPenney, Macy's, and Sears as its anchor stores.

County officials said they will soon have complete control of the site. The St. Louis County Port Authority is expected to close on the last two parcels on the property by the end of the year.

The entire site of the former Jamestown Mall is now under the control of St. Louis County. The county Port Authority has contracts for the final two sections of the property, which has become an eyesore since the mall closed in 2014.

An effort to redevelop the shuttered Jamestown Mall is headed back to the drawing board.

The north St. Louis County mall has been closed for several years. A first step toward redeveloping the structure is classifying the mall as blighted, which allows the county to use eminent domain. But Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray and St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger have disagreed on who should oversee the effort.  

St. Louis County’s effort to redevelop the shuttered Jamestown Mall has hit a snag.

The north St. Louis County mall has been closed for several years. The first step toward redeveloping the structure is classifying the mall as blighted, which allows the county to use eminent domain.  (You can read more about the redevelopment effort here.)

Updated Jan. 3, 2017 with County Council action: The St. Louis County Council did not vote on designating Jamestown Mall as blighted at the weekly council meeting Tuesday. Newly elected council member Rochelle Walton Gray, D-Blackjack, requested more time to review information about the proposal. The council will take up the matter at a later date.

Original Story from Jan. 2:

Plans to redevelop the vacant Jamestown Mall near Florissant could soon take shape.  St. Louis County officials say they hope to complete the legal steps necessary to own the entire mall property within months.

The first step is officially classifying the mall as blighted, which allows the county to use eminent domain. The County Council has scheduled a hearing at 4 p.m. Tuesday in its chambers in Clayton to get public input. Later that evening the council is scheduled for a final vote on the matter.

After years of decline and four days of intensive planning, the drive to transform Jamestown Mall moved into the "what if" stage on Tuesday night.

For example: What if, instead of a large, empty Sears building and a deserted parking lot at the corner of Lindbergh and Old Jamestown Road, there were mixed housing, shops, restaurants, a farmers' market and more intimate, walkable space, designed not to draw shoppers from a wide area but to serve the needs of people who live in the area?