River Roads Mall

Infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = River Roads Mall


image_width = 200
caption =
location = Jennings, Missouri, United States
address =
coordinates =
opening_date = 1963
closing_date = ca. 1995, demolished 2006
developer = Stix, Baer & Fuller
manager =
owner =
number_of_stores =
number_of_anchors =
floor_area = convert|600000|sqft|m2|1
floors = 2
parking =
website =
footnotes =

River Roads Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Jennings, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened in the 1950s as one of the nation's first shopping malls,cite web |url=http://www.slfp.com/News122605.htm |title=$4.1 Million in Tax Credits to Rehabilitate River Roads |accessdate=2007-10-15 |date=2005-12-25 |work=STL News] the mall declined in the 1990s, becoming a dead mall and eventually being shuttered. Demolition of the long-vacant mall began in 2006.

History

Opened in the early 1960s, the mall originally featured St. Louis-based Stix, Baer & Fuller as its main anchor store, as well as a Kroger supermarket and an Woolworth dime store. Walgreens operated a store in the mall that was considered a junior anchor. A 1970s expansion brought JCPenney as a second anchor store.cite web |url=http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/river_roads_mall.html |title=River Roads Mall : Jennings, Missouri |accessdate=2007-10-15 |work=Deadmalls.com]

Dillard's bought the Stix, Baer & Fuller chain in 1984, converting all Stix, Baer & Fuller stores to the Dillard's name; however, the River Roads Mall store was closed not long afterward in 1986 at the end of the lease. JCPenney converted its store to a JCPenney outlet in 1984. The mall's Kroger was converted to an independent supermarket called Food 4 Less after Kroger pulled out of the St. Louis market in 1986. Woolworth closed the River Roads location (along with locations at West County Mall and in South St. Louis City) in the spring of 1991 during one of the chain's earliest rounds of store closures. Walgreens was one of the mall's final tenants even though the mall corridor had been closed the previous year. In the final year, customers entered the store via the liquor department entrance that faced the mall parking lot. Walgreens closed its store at the mall in 1996, locating across the street to a freestanding location at the corner of Halls Ferry and Jennings Station Roads.

By the mid 1990s, most of the other stores in the mall had closed as well, leaving the Food 4 Less as the only store open. Benderson Development, which had acquired the mall shortly before its closure, sold the mall property in 1997. [cite web |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/1997/12/01/story6.html |title=River Roads Mall owner shops for buyer |accessdate=2007-10-15 |last=Tucci |first=Linda |date=1997-12-01 |work=St. Louis Business Journal]

Demolition of the vacant structure began in 2006.

References