CRESTWOOD PLAZA
Watson Road / US 66 and Sappington Road
Crestwood, Missouri

The third regional shopping center in the St. Louis Metro was situated on 48 acres, 12 miles southwest of the downtown area. CRESTWOOD PLAZA was developed by Milton and Lewis Zorensky / Hycel Properties and completed in 1957.

Originally an open-air, strip-format complex with a single retail level and service basement, CRESTWOOD PLAZA was anchored by a 2-level (156,600 square foot), St. Louis-based Scruggs, Vandervoort and Barney (the second suburban branch in the chain) and 2-Level (221,300 square foot) Sears.

The center's thirty-five charter tenants included Walgreen Drug, Lerner Shops, F.W. Woolworth and a Kroger supermarket.

There was no on-site cinema at the circa-'57 center. However, the 66 Park-In, a drive-in theater, had opened in 1948. It was located directly across from the shopping center and was in business until 1994. A sit-down venue, the Crestwood Theatre, operated between 1964 and 1986. It was located one half mile west of CRESTWOOD PLAZA, on Watson Road.

Commercial competitors of CRESTWOOD included WESTROADS CENTER (1955), near Richmond Heights, SOUTH COUNTY CENTER (1963), near Mehlville, and WEST COUNTY CENTER (1969), in Des Peres.

A fully-enclosed mall structure was added to the existing strip center in 1967. It was built over a two-level parking garage and included a 3-level (240,000 square foot), St. Louis-based Stix, Baer and Fuller.

Anchor rebrandings at CRESTWOOD PLAZA commenced in 1969, when St. Louis-based Famous-Barr bought the Vandervoort's store. The Stix nameplated lasted until 1984, when the chain was purchased by Dillard's.

A second expansion of the shopping venue was completed in 1984. During this project, the Woolworth wing at the front of the complex was razed. The remaining strip center and adjacent mall building were rebuilt into a fully-enclosed shopping mall of nearly 1 million leasable square feet.

A large food court was installed in the basement along with the 5-screen, AMC Crestwood 5 multiplex. The newly-created mall housed over one hundred and forty stores and services, including The Limited, The Gap and Zales Jewelers.

Australia-based Westfield Holdings (now the Westfield Group) acquired the mall in January 1998. The following year, a third expansion came inline which included the construction of a new 10-screen, AMC multiplex in the northeast corner of the complex. The original basement level theater became a video arcade.

In a questionable attempt at branding all of its retail properties, Westfield saddled the shopping center with the lengthy name WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN CRESTWOOD...eventually shortened to WESTFIELD CRESTWOOD.

By the early 2000s, the shopping center was in decline. The typical scenario of changing regional demographics had taken its toll on the mall. Moreover, the proximity of ST. LOUIS GALLERIA (a 1985-'86 rebuild of WESTROADS CENTER) did not bode well for the CRESTWOOD complex.

Famous-Barr considered closing its WESTFIELD CRESTWOOD location in September 2005. However, the store remained open up to -and after- its "Macy-ation" in September 2006. Dillard's did pull the plug on their store in October 2007...leaving approximately sixty other retailers in business.

The struggling center was sold to a joint venture of Chicago-based Centrum Properties and New York City-based Angelo, Gordon and Company in March 2008. The official name of the retail hub was changed to CRESTWOOD COURT.

An ambitious redevelopment was soon announced, with most of the existing structure to be demolished and replaced with an open-air, lifestyle center. However, given the shaky economy of late and the shuttering of the mall's Macy's in early 2009, one would imagine that this project might be mothballed until the retail scene begins to improve.

Sources:

www.deadmall.com / K.C. Dierkes' commentary
www.westfield.com
www.joneslanglasalle.com
www.city-data.com
www.cinematreasures.com / Charles Van Bibber submission