Chesterfield Approves Downtown Development to Replace Former Mall
Date Posted: September 7, 2023
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Chesterfield City Council on Tuesday gave final approval to a plan to replace a defunct mall here with thousands of apartments, shops and businesses after months of negotiations with the developer and concerned residents.
The council voted unanimously to a plan by The Staenberg Group to demolish the mall, at Clarkson Road and Interstate 64, and replace it with more than 2,500 apartment units, thousands of square feet of commercial space, pedestrian walkways and other amenities.
Demolition of the mall isn’t expected to begin until late 2024 at the earliest, and The Staenberg Group will need to get council approval for detailed construction plans for the site. But, after months of debate and delays, the vote Tuesday was a significant step forward, Mayor Bob Nation said.
“This has been a while coming and we still have some challenges ahead, and we’re looking forward to that,” Nation said after the vote. “And right now we’re all leaving united and looking forward to the future.”
The city’s action paves the way for a project that, along with a neighboring housing and retail development called Wildhorse Village, represents more than $2 billion of new development poised to remake some of the last undeveloped land in Chesterfield, a major shopping destination in the St. Louis region and one of the wealthiest suburbs in the state of Missouri.
The vote was greeted with applause from more than two dozen people in the crowd, including a handful who urged the council to support a project they said would be transformational for the city.
“The positive impact of this project will be felt for decades to come,” said Debbie Shaw.
The action Tuesday followed years of debate over a concept that originated around 2018, after the Chesterfield Mall went into default and The Staenberg Group bought the Sears building there in a separate transaction. That deal essentially blocked an attempt by a Georgia-based company to redevelop the land, and The Staenberg Group acquired the rest of the site in 2020 and pitched a mixed-use downtown concept for the site.