Mall Center Court - "St Clair Square" Fairview Heights, IL
On October 31, 1974, St. Clair Square opened as the ninth mall in St. Louis. The new mall was designed by the Widemayor-Cernik-Corrubia firm, of St. Louis and was the sixteenth mall developed by St. Louis based May Centers company. ST. CLAIR SQUARE was built on an 88.8 acre plot, located 13.9 miles east of downtown STL in the Metro East suburb of Fairview Heights, Illinois.
May’s own Famous-Barr was the first store to open and predates the rest of the mall by one year having opened on October 29, 1973. Sears added a store to the malls south end on April 29, 1975, and JCPenney filled in a crook in the malls armpit with a dual entrance store on January 28, 1976. St. Louis-based Stix, Baer & Fuller debuted their store on April 23, 1979. (I should have researched before I went because the store is exactly 13 years older than I am!)
The malls first major overhaul came with the installation of the properties 8 bay food court on October 4, 1993.
CBL & Associates purchased the mall in November 1996 and extensively renovated the property between 2002-2003 to better compete with the Simon owned Alton Square in Alton, IL and Westfield Group owned South County Center in Mehlville, MO (all three properties were developed by May Centers).
Besides Sears closing in 2019, the mall is in pretty good shape despite being near some of the poorest and most economically destitute areas of both metro STL and Illinois.
Follow me on Instagram @RuralRetail
Mall Center Court - "St Clair Square" Fairview Heights, IL
On October 31, 1974, St. Clair Square opened as the ninth mall in St. Louis. The new mall was designed by the Widemayor-Cernik-Corrubia firm, of St. Louis and was the sixteenth mall developed by St. Louis based May Centers company. ST. CLAIR SQUARE was built on an 88.8 acre plot, located 13.9 miles east of downtown STL in the Metro East suburb of Fairview Heights, Illinois.
May’s own Famous-Barr was the first store to open and predates the rest of the mall by one year having opened on October 29, 1973. Sears added a store to the malls south end on April 29, 1975, and JCPenney filled in a crook in the malls armpit with a dual entrance store on January 28, 1976. St. Louis-based Stix, Baer & Fuller debuted their store on April 23, 1979. (I should have researched before I went because the store is exactly 13 years older than I am!)
The malls first major overhaul came with the installation of the properties 8 bay food court on October 4, 1993.
CBL & Associates purchased the mall in November 1996 and extensively renovated the property between 2002-2003 to better compete with the Simon owned Alton Square in Alton, IL and Westfield Group owned South County Center in Mehlville, MO (all three properties were developed by May Centers).
Besides Sears closing in 2019, the mall is in pretty good shape despite being near some of the poorest and most economically destitute areas of both metro STL and Illinois.
Follow me on Instagram @RuralRetail