Crestwood Court

Crestwood Court

Opening date	1957
Developer	Louis Zorensky
Management	Jones Lang LaSalle
Owner	Centrum Properties
No. of stores and services	157[1]
No. of anchor tenants	3 (2 vacant)
Total retail floor area	1,034,494 square feet (96,000 m2) (GLA)[1]
No. of floors	1 (2 in anchors)

Crestwood Court, formerly known as Crestwood Plaza and Westfield Crestwood, is an enclosed shopping mall in St. Louis, Missouri. Opened in 1957, it was the first major mall in the St. Louis area, and one of the first to have more than one department store. The mall includes one anchor store, Sears, with two vacant anchors last occupied by Macy's and Dillard's. The mall is owned by Centrum Properties and managed by Jones Lang LaSalle.

History

Crestwood Plaza was the first regional mall in the St. Louis metropolitan area.^[2] Local retail developer Louis Zorensky developed the mall in 1957. Its original anchor stores included local department store Scruggs-Vandervoort-Barney (later Famous-Barr, then Macy's) and Sears, making one of the first major malls to have more than one anchor store, and the first to utilize a split-level parking lot to allow direct access to both floors of the anchors.^[2] Zorensky later developed a second St. Louis mall, Northwest Plaza, which opened in 1965.^[2] In 1967, Crestwood was expanded, adding Stix Baer & Fuller (later Dillard's) as a third anchor.^[3]

The mall was the subject of a 1975 lawsuit related to a Kroger supermarket that formerly operated within it. The suit was filed after Kroger moved to a new store across the street in 1972 and subleased its space in the mall to Tipton Electronics. Mall owners wanted to terminate the lease with Kroger, but Kroger wanted to maintain the sub-lease. The suit ruled in Kroger's favor.^[4]

Originally an open-air mall, Crestwood Plaza was encosed in 1984.^[1] A Woolworth store at the mall closed in 1988, and was replaced by eighteen smaller stores a year later.^[5]

Westfield Group purchased Crestwood Plaza in 1998^[6] and renamed it Westfield Shoppingtown Crestwood. The company sold two other St. Louis area malls to CBL & Associates Properties in 2007, but did not include Crestwood in the sale. It had previously attempted to sell the mall to Somera Capital Management in 2006, but the deal fell through.^[7] The mall was ultimately sold to Centrum Properties and renamed Crestwood Court.^[8] Also in 2007, Dillard's closed its store in the mall due to decreased sales.^[7] Famous-Barr had also announced plans to relocate to a new outdoor mall in Sunset Hills, but remained at Crestwood after the Sunset Hills development was canceled.^[9] The Crestwood store closed as a Macy's in 2009, leaving Sears as the only anchor.^[10]

The loss of anchor stores has resulted in increasing vacancies throughout Crestwood Court. Although Centrum initially planned to redevelop the center as a lifestyle center, it has filled more than half of the mall with art-oriented tenants, such as art galleries and dance studios.^[11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Property Facts". Crestwood Court. http://www.crestwoodcourt.com/mimages/factsheets.pdf. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Mall development pioneer Louis Zorensky dead at 88". International Council of Shopping Centers. August 2005. http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct0805/people_4_louis_zorensky.php. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
3. ^ Jordan, Ray (18 October 1997). "Crestwood Plaza went indoors beginning in '67". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB050818658FAFF&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
4. ^ "CRESTWOOD PLAZA v. KROGER CO.". Find a Case. http://mo.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.%2FSAC%2FMO%2F1974%2F19741210_0008.MO.htm/qx. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
5. ^ "No headline". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 11 October 1989. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB04C56873E7D6B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
6. ^ Bruno, Carl; Shelley L. Hill (1 May 1998). "Strategic compensation pays off". Retail Traffic. http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_strategic_compensation_pays/. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Mannino, Fran (17 August 2007). "Westfield Crestwood". South County Times. http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-i-2007-08-17-69385.113117-Westfield_Crestwood.html. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
8. ^ "Under new ownership, Crestwood Mall changes name to Crestwood Court Read more: Under new ownership, Crestwood Mall changes name to Crestwood Court". St. Louis Business Journal. 31 March 2008. http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/03/31/daily64.html. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
9. ^ Heisler, Eric (26 August 2005). "Famous plans to leave Crestwood Store would become Macy's in Sunset Hills". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10C3F257ACF78D08&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
10. ^ Bryant, Tim (9 January 2009). "Crestwood Court Macy's is among 11 set to close 176 jobs lost here". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SL&p_theme=sl&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=1259D44F20B04558&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 
11. ^ "Crestwood Court receives boost from arts tenants". St. Louis Business Journal. 4 May 2009. http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/05/04/focus6.html. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 

External links

• Official website