Macy's leaves NWP (Kansas City, St. Louis, Overland: sales, foreclosure, lenders)

[flynavyj]

Macy's to close at Northwest Plaza - St. Louis Business Journal:Macy's to close at Northwest Plaza


The city of St. Ann and struggling Northwest Plaza received another blow Tuesday when Macy’s Inc. announced plans to close its store at the mall.
The Cincinnati-based department store chain said it was closing five stores nationwide, affecting more than 300 workers, to prune “underperforming” locations from the company.
The Northwest Plaza Macy’s location is 240,000 square feet and has 71 employees. The closure in 60 days could prompt the mall’s remaining anchor store, Sears, to also leave.
In September, lenders took control of the St. Ann mall for $29.95 million at a foreclosure sale.
Local and out-of-town commercial developers have expressed interest in redeveloping Northwest Plaza but are discouraged by the complexities of dealing with the mall’s owners, banks and lenders, said Matt Conley, city administrator for St. Ann.
The city plans to take the mall through eminent domain to encourage redevelopment and to prevent the mall from sitting empty for years, he said. “The lenders rebuffed our gestures to move the property forward,” he said. “No commercial developer is willing to step in and sort through the deal with the bankers and financial reality of the property. The city is prepared to take what steps it can to redevelop the property.”
St. Ann officials are already reeling from plans Wal-Mart has to close its St. Ann store and open a new one nearby in Bridgeton, which is offering $8 million in tax-increment financing (TIF) to Overland-based developer THF Realty for the project. Chairman Stan Kroenke and President Michael Staenberg founded THF, one of the largest privately held companies in St. Louis, with $222.3 million in revenue in 2008.
About 10 percent of the sales tax from the existing Wal-Mart, or more than $100,000, goes to St. Ann.
The loss of revenue from Macy’s and Wal-Mart will force St. Ann to make additional budget cuts from its $9.4 million fiscal 2010 budget, Conley said.
A new state TIF law was specifically designed to prevent a business from getting incentives to relocate from one municipality to another but that’s what’s happening in St. Ann and Bridgeton, Conley said.
Macy’s said Tuesday it is also closing stores in Boise, Idaho; Waterford, Mich.; Missoula, Mont.; and Burlington, N.J.
Final clearance sales at the Northwest Plaza Macy’s and the other closing stores will begin Sunday and will run for 60 days.
Displaced workers may be offered positions in nearby stores where possible. Regular full-time and part-time associates who are laid off due to a store closing will be provided severance benefits and outplacement assistance.
In 2009, Macy’s closed its 40-year-old store at Crestwood Court, formerly known as Crestwood Plaza, and opened a store in Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Following the store closings announced Tuesday, Macy’s Inc. will operate 849 stores: 809 Macy’s and 40 Bloomingdale’s. The company had fiscal 2008 sales of $24.9 billion.


looks like my "soon to be" community will be taking another hit. Hopefully they can come up with some ideas to revamp the mall, or use the land for something productive...I'd rather not see the place sitting as a ghost town for much longer, property in the area is difficult to come by, and i'd assume that someone would be willing to build some "middle class" homes in there, but as it stands w/ the economy, that probably wouldn't take off right now either.

[STLMetro]

I saw this, very sad. Unfortunately, this is to be expected from a lot of retailers. When a retailer knows they are going out of business, they usually try to push everything out the door during Christmas and after Christmas sales, then shut the doors.

[CarrieNeno]

I can't believe it took THIS long, frankly!? NW Plaza is a dead zone, and that Macy's is EXTREMELY run down. Sad, sad.

[STLCityMike]

I can recall when Northwest Plaza was a shopping destintion! It is so sad that this has occurred. I understand Jamestown Mall is also facing similar issues.

[arch_genesis]

that's the nature of the beast (St Louis), leap frogging one another for tax dollars leaving dead big boxes along the way

[STLCityMike]

Well, I think there are many factors for Northwest Plaza and Jamestown. These were all heathly shopping centers in the past. Think shopping trends (to discount department stores), the pinch in the middle class, and also social factors (complaints of 'gang' activity at each) is as much of a factor. We can't just blame the municipalities in this case.

The move of Wal Mart from one city to a neighboring is a different story, in my opinion.

[arch_genesis]

every municipality is fighting for retail dollars, if you lose tenants to the newest mall you're going to have these effects. deadmall.com Then you add in the competition of online shopping.

another sea of asphalt impermeable to water forcing rain into storm drains and flooding our rivers.
another blighted area. There are far worse things than menacing-looking 12 year olds.

If this region weren't so splintered and competing amongst itself for every last dollar, then I could see Jamestown or Northwest building something complementary to the galleria and the mills. Hopefully we take these opportunities to act as a region and not st. ann florissant bridgeton maryland heights etc.

[flynavyj]

My mother, a bridgeton resident has commented on many occasions that NWP needed to be imploded quite awhile ago. I really thought the renderings for the redevelopment looked promising, and reminded me of "The Legends" in Kansas City, with it's outdoor themed shopping. A mall such as that could really have a place here in St. Louis, and help deferentiate it from the surrounding malls.

As a kid, i spent tons of time at the plaza. My friends and I would see movies there when we were in gradeschool, and go downstairs to Tilt while waiting for our parents to pick us up.

If they could figure out the revitilzation, it'd be great. But at this point, i see more downhill sliding before anything is going to turn around at the mall. If Wal-Mart pulls out, It'll be an even bigger struggle for St. Ann to take in $$. I do agree that the Walmart in it's current location isn't very adequate, and a Super-WalMart would be great for NW county, but ditching one community for another would be pretty terrible, I'd also think it'll leave a massive crater in that shopping center,which has numerous vacencies as it is. If Walmart could purchase most of the shopping center, and simply build a new, larger, walmart in it's place, that would be IDEAL and keep the tax basis between the two cities that share the current property.

[Marksman84]

My buddies and I used to drink 40s of Schlitz, Old E 400 and whatever other cheap liquor in the parking lot area. Wow, over 20 years ago.

Sad to see this, but - do we REALLY need another freaking WAL-MART?!?!!

[DinsdalePirahna]

Originally Posted by arch_genesis

every municipality is fighting for retail dollars, if you lose tenants to the newest mall you're going to have these effects. deadmall.com Then you add in the competition of online shopping.

another sea of asphalt impermeable to water forcing rain into storm drains and flooding our rivers.
another blighted area. There are far worse things than menacing-looking 12 year olds.

If this region weren't so splintered and competing amongst itself for every last dollar, then I could see Jamestown or Northwest building something complementary to the galleria and the mills. Hopefully we take these opportunities to act as a region and not st. ann florissant bridgeton maryland heights etc.

Good Points

One of the most successful and elite mixed use/shopping/business/residential centers in Orange County is located within the jurisdictions of 3 "less than desirable cities. (Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley) The area was rebranded as South Coast (even though it is about 5 miles from the ocean) The Mall has become a world-renowned destination center. One of the keys to their success is attracting upscale tenants. You won't find many of the traditional trashy and generic mall shops at South Coast Plaza. But is there a large enough Market in Saint Louis to make such a mall succeed? South Coast also competes with Fashion Island less than 3 miles away.

I don't see anything in this area that could compete against a very upscale mall (The Galleria and West County can't compare to South Coast or Fashion Island.)