St. Louis Mills In Hazelwood, MO: What Happened To The Mall That Had It All?

St. Louis Mills could fill a Saturday without asking anyone to leave the building. Families could shop the outlets, see a movie at Regal Cinemas, watch skaters at IceZone, eat at a restaurant, pass the big-box anchors, and still have sports attractions waiting nearby.

That was the promise behind "the mall that had it all." It was not just a row of stores. It was built as a full-day stop for Hazelwood, Bridgeton, north St. Louis County, and the wider St. Louis metro.

The enclosed mall opened on November 13, 2003, at 5555 St. Louis Mills Boulevard in Hazelwood, Missouri, near Missouri Route 370 and Interstate 270, with access to Interstate 70, Interstate 170, and St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

It later became St. Louis Outlet Mall, closed as a retail mall in 2019, and now operates as Hazelwood Business Park.

St. Louis Mills in Hazelwood, MO

St. Louis Mills Opened With Ice, Outlets, and Scale

A visitor entering St. Louis Mills on opening day stepped into a building large enough to turn a normal shopping trip into a planned outing.

The mall held about 1.1 million square feet, about 200 specialty and outlet retailers, 12 anchors, restaurants, and entertainment uses.

The location near Missouri Route 370 and Missouri Bottom Road gave the property highway access, open land, and proximity to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Downtown St. Louis sat about 16 miles away, close enough for regional traffic but far enough for the project to need its own gravity.

The Mills Corporation and Kan Am developed the property through St. Louis Mills Limited Partnership.

The mall followed the Mills model: value retail, outlet stores, entertainment, food, and big-box anchors instead of the older department-store formula.

Off 5th - Saks Fifth Avenue, Off Broadway Shoes, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshalls, and Regal Cinemas were early commitments.

Construction began in July 2002 with H.C. Beck as the construction contractor.

The opening mix included Burlington Coat Factory, Books-A-Million, Circuit City, NASCAR SpeedPark, Ice Zone, Sears Appliance Outlet, and other large-format retail spaces.

Ice Zone became a practice facility for the St. Louis Blues.

St. Louis Mills Needed Roads Before Shoppers Arrived

The mall rose on about 200 acres, and the surrounding road work was almost as important as the building.

A destination mall needed entrances, exits, parking fields, and highway connections that could handle regional traffic.

A transportation-development district covered about 184.6 acres in the northeast quadrant of Route 370 and Missouri Bottom Road.

Its work included the Route 370 and Missouri Bottom Road interchange, relocation of Missouri Bottom Road, public parking areas, St. Louis Mills Circle, the St. Louis Mills Boulevard intersection, widening of Taussig Road, and a new railroad overpass.

The district issued about $39.47 million in transportation revenue bonds in 2002. Transportation-project costs were about $34 million. Tax-increment financing also supported the project.

Hazelwood, Bridgeton, St. Louis County, and the Missouri Department of Transportation all had infrastructure tied to the improvements.

The public cost followed the mall into later debate.

District sales-tax revenue totaled about $8.22 million from opening through September 2008, and the decline raised a sharper question: whether the project created lasting retail demand or pulled activity away from older shopping areas.

Inside the Outlet Mall Built for a Whole Afternoon

By the end of 2006, St. Louis Mills had 13 anchor spaces totaling about 580,000 square feet and another 175 specialty-store spaces covering about 505,200 square feet.

The mall was built to spread shoppers across a full afternoon, not move them through one row of stores.

Outlet clothing carried much of the retail identity. Gap Outlet, Guess Factory Store, Nike Factory Store, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, and Off 5th - Saks Fifth Avenue gave the corridors a discount-brand focus.

Children's stores, shoe stores, sports shops, beauty services, accessories, games, and novelty stores filled in the rest.

The entertainment side made the place feel different from a standard mall.

Regal Cinemas, NASCAR SpeedPark, Ice Zone, Lucky Strike Lanes, Putting Edge, SportStreet, an ESPN X Games-branded skate park, and the first PBS KIDS Backyard gave families reasons to stay after the shopping bags were full.

Outparcels added more familiar stops around the mall. Babies R Us, Steak 'n Shake, Jared, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Bob Evans stood outside the enclosed center.

In 2006, the leasing still matched the concept. Eleven anchor leases covered about 491,500 square feet, and 131 open specialty-store leases covered about 414,000 square feet.

Holiday Sales Filled the Early Mall Ledgers

The first partial month had 185 billed merchants. November 2003 sales reached about $13.7 million, followed by about $20 million in December.

The holiday numbers stayed large for several years. December sales reached about $25.1 million in 2004, $24.6 million in 2005, $23.3 million in 2006, and $29.5 million in 2007.

From November 2003 through September 2008, district sales totaled about $826.5 million.

Those figures show a mall that was active in its early years, especially when holiday traffic filled the corridors.

The anchor plan still looked strong in 2006, and the specialty-store roster still carried national outlet names, children's stores, shoe stores, sports stores, restaurants, and entertainment uses.

The pressure was already building underneath the crowds. The property needed enough long-term leasing strength to support its financing and occupancy assumptions.

The Mills Corporation entered a wider financial transition as the decade moved on. SPG-FCM Ventures acquired the Mills portfolio in 2007.

The Hazelwood mall entered the next decade with a large building, heavy obligations, and a retail model already under pressure.

The $90 Million Loan Forced a New Name

A $90 million Morgan Stanley Capital Investments construction loan matured on January 8, 2012. Replacement financing was not obtained, and the mall defaulted.

On August 31, 2012, the property was transferred by deed in lieu of foreclosure to MSCI 2007-IQ13 Retail 5555 LLC.

The retail name later changed to St. Louis Outlet Mall, giving the property a clearer outlet identity without changing the building or its deeper problems.

Some tenants and attractions still moved through the property during the post-Mills years. Ross Dress for Less opened in 2013 in 35,000 square feet.

NASCAR SpeedPark closed in January 2014. Epic Music & Events Center leased 26,800 square feet in late 2014.

In November 2015, the property entered an online auction process with a $1.5 million opening bid.

The mall still had 1.19 million square feet, 12 anchor tenants, more than 80 retail and entertainment tenants, and about 77 percent occupancy.

Cabela's, Regal Cinemas, Ross Dress for Less, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Ice Zone remained in the mix. St. Louis Retail Outlet LLC bought the property in February 2016.

Namdar Inherited a Mall Losing Its Retail Pull

Namdar Realty Group bought the property in April 2017. By then, St. Louis Outlet Mall had fallen far below the scale planned for St. Louis Mills.

Occupancy stood at 48.4 percent. The property had about 578,000 square feet leased out of about 1,195,000 square feet of leasable area.

Anchor space carried most of what remained, while open specialty-store space had shrunk to about 77,000 square feet.

The outparcels told the same uneven story. Goodwill Outlet and Babies R Us were open. Jared and LongHorn Steakhouse were open. Steak 'n Shake had been completed but was closed. Bob Evans was closed.

The old retail formula had little room to recover.

Outlet shoppers had more choices, big-box chains had changed formats, online shopping had grown, and the St. Louis region already had multiple competing retail centers.

Regal closed its movie theater at the former mall in December 2018. By 2019, the retail mall was about 91 percent vacant.

Most remaining tenants were told to leave as the property moved toward redevelopment. Cabela's remained the clearest surviving retail anchor tied to the original mall site.

POWERplex Tried to Fill the Mall With Sports

A nearly empty mall became the stage for a different idea in 2019. POWERplex aimed to turn the former St. Louis Mills into a youth-sports and tournament destination.

The plan covered about 160 acres and used the old mall shell for indoor and outdoor sports venues, tournaments, restaurants, hotels, sports retail, and entertainment.

It was tied to a settlement over about $36.8 million in transportation-development tax debt.

The program included six sports venues, more than 180 major tournaments and events per year, 13 restaurants, hotels, and sports-focused retail.

Volleyball, baseball, ice hockey, pickleball, an event center, an amusement center, go-karts, golf simulators, a bar and grill, and a microbrewery all appeared in the plan.

By late 2022, sports uses occupied about 130,000 square feet. Volleyball, baseball, pickleball, and ice hockey were active pieces of the project.

The plan then shifted toward a split building. Industrial Commercial Properties would use about half for business-park space, while POWERplex would use the other half.

Hazelwood Business Park Replaced the Sports Plan

The long-term lease between the sports-complex operator and the property owner did not happen in 2023. The larger POWERplex plan ended.

Public money pledged by Hazelwood and St. Louis County had not been paid to POWERplex.

The local funding required a marketing study, guaranteed loan commitment, and completion of the full financing package. Those conditions were not satisfied.

The former mall then moved toward industrial, office, manufacturing, logistics, and related commercial reuse. Industrial Commercial Properties became the owner and operator of Hazelwood Business Park.

The building now has 1,268,500 square feet, with about 919,000 square feet available on a 184-acre site.

The selling points are no longer storefronts, food courts, or movie screens. They are loading access, power, parking, high ceilings, office buildouts, and highway reach.

IDI Distributors signed about 30,000 square feet and became the first industrial tenant at the business park. Dive Bomb Industries later signed a 128,000-square-foot lease and moved its headquarters from Westport.

The Old Mall Now Works as an Industrial Address

The address that once depended on outlet shoppers and moviegoers now depends on floor space, power, parking, and access.

Hazelwood Business Park is marketed for light industrial, technology, manufacturing, office, logistics, call-center, and related retail or restaurant space.

Available spaces start at about 30,000 square feet, with large connected blocks still open for tenants.

The building's industrial features include high ceilings, loading access, three-phase power, and 17 MW power capacity.

The old mall is still visible in the building itself. The parking fields remain. The big-box shape remains. The anchor spaces remain. The enclosed-mall shell remains.

The purpose has changed. The property is now meant for work, storage, manufacturing, and business operations rather than shopping.

Cabela's still uses the 5555 St. Louis Mills Boulevard address. That store remains the clearest retail tie to the St. Louis Mills era.

St. Louis Mills now holds several real estate cycles in one place: early-2000s indoor mall growth, outlet and entertainment retail, publicly supported suburban expansion, post-recession distress, sports-reuse plans, and industrial conversion.