Home   >   Projects   >   Plan to Transform Hazelwood Mall Into PowerPlex in ‘Final Stages,’ Group Says

Plan to Transform Hazelwood Mall Into PowerPlex in ‘Final Stages,’ Group Says

By on July 11, 2018

From St. Louis Business Journal:  The development group pushing to transform the St. Louis Outlet Mall into a 138-acre youth sports complex says it’s in the “final stages” of planning.

Big Sports Properties said a “significant portion” of PowerPlex will open by spring 2019 if all financing and construction details are worked out by October. A formal announcement is to be made in the coming weeks, the group said.

“Nothing of worth ever happens quickly,” Big Sports Properties Managing Partner Dan Buck said in a statement. “This is going to be an enormous youth sports complex, attracting over 2.4 million visitors annually to the St. Louis area. It comes with a lot of complex construction and financing challenges. Everyone wants to make sure we are doing thorough due diligence and getting it right.”

The project is estimated to cost $92 million, with about $6 million coming from the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission.

Big Sports Properties is working with the cities of Hazelwood and Bridgeton to push forward the project, which has been impeded by the roughly $36 million debt from the 370/Missouri Bottom Road/Taussig Road Transportation Development District (TDD) that was established in 2000. The TDD was to support transportation projects through a retail sales tax that was to be generated from the St. Louis Outlet Mall, then known as The Mills Mall at 5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd. But the TDD has failed to make the annual $2.8 million payments due to declining sales at the 1.2 million-square-foot mall, which is nearly half-vacant.

Read more.

 

About Dede Hance