St. Louis mall demolition receives funding

The St. Louis County Council in Missouri has reportedly earmarked $6 million for the demolition of a vacant shopping mall in Florissant, Missouri.

An online report by KTVI-TV in St. Louis says the Jamestown Mall has been abandoned for more than 10 years. Funding for the demo job was championed by county council member Shalonda Webb, and comes after several county executives over the years “have tried and failed to move the Jamestown Mall project along,” according to the TV station.

The $6 million in funding is tied to the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). That federal legislation was introduced to stimulate the economy after the COVID-19 related restrictions of 2020 and has been tapped into for other recent demolition projects.

Council member Webb is quoted by KTVI as calling the abandoned mall “a problem in our community [that] went from an eyesore, to a health hazard, to a public safety hazard.”

Neither Webb nor the TV station has offered a timeline for the project. Regarding redevelopment of the site, Webb has suggested a range of possibilities, including a mixed-use scenario involving housing, entertainment and retail.

The St. Louis Today website says Jamestown Mall was fully shuttered in 2014. A document on the St. Louis County website describes the mall as being more than 1 million square feet in size and sitting on 142 acres of land.