Recommend ‘urban town center’ redevelopment
Special to The American
After a comprehensive study of Jamestown Mall, a panel of experts from the Urban Land Institute presented its recommendations to a standing-room only crowd last Friday at Shalom Church City of Peace in unincorporated St. Louis County.
The panel suggested that the existing Jamestown Mall be replaced with an urban town center, one that combines one-of-a-kind retail-style boutiques with other mixed-used amenities such as a community center, office space, farmers market, green space and possibly an amphitheater.
“North County does not have the capacity to support Jamestown Mall’s one-million square feet of retail simply because of the overlapping competition in the surrounding region,” said Ray Brown of Urban Land Institute (ULI), who chaired the Jamestown Mall Advisory Services Panel Study.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley said plans are underway to develop a series of discussions with residents, businesses, officials and other stakeholders to gather input and keep the process moving forward.
“The recommendations from ULI are an important first step, and standing still is not an option,” said Dooley.
Those who were unable to attend last week’s public forum will have the opportunity to view it over the next two weeks on News 20, the cable channel for the City of Blackjack. Channel20 will air the hour-long ULI presentation 7 p.m. 10 p.m. Thursday, October 1, 10 a.m. Saturday, October 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday, October 4. The presentation also will run the same times during the week of October 5.
In addition, you can access the presentation by visiting www.slcec.com.