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The 1.2M SF Jamestown Mall, which opened in 1973 in Florissant with considerable fanfare and closed with barely a whimper in 2014, fully passed into the possession of the St. Louis County Port Authority, which had previously acquired most of it.
The port authority inked a deal this week with the owner of the last piece of the property, The Carlyle Group, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The Port Authority had been trying to acquire the remaining piece by eminent domain, but now that a purchase has been arranged, it will withdraw the lawsuit. The Carlyle Group is receiving $1.7M for the final piece, which used to be a Dillard's department store.
The property not only is closed, it has a number of issues, according to the Port Authority’s condemnation lawsuit. The suit claimed that there was a lack of adequate lighting and there were sinkholes, asbestos and lead paint and damage from rodents and birds, among other problems.
At one time, Jamestown Mall had four anchor department stores. Besides Dillard's, there was Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy's. The last of them, Macy's, bit the dust in 2014.
The Port Authority plans to hold an open house to discuss ideas for the site. Eventually, either it or the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership will issue a request for redevelopment proposals. Previous redevelopment schemes, most dating back to the 2000s, never came to fruition.
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