Update: With little fanfare, both Macy’s and the mall reopened after all in mid-May 2020. Macy’s eventually closed in November of 2020 before reopening a smaller store in Chesterfield Valley.
I don’t think the Macy’s at Chesterfield Mall is going to reopen. Back after the Dillard’s was flooded due to a water main break, they announced it was going to reopen, but then I went by and there was no evidence any repairs were going on. I posted about it here, and then shortly thereafter Dillard’s announced it was not reopening. A while back I read an article about Macy’s updating a bunch of its stores to remain competitive; the Chesterfield location wasn’t on the list. I bet it will remain shuttered forever.
I am really going to miss this mall. I spent a lot of time here over the last thirty years, and while sometimes I might joke around about my visits, I take no joy in reporting on its sad closure. I think about all the jobs lost, all the lives affected, the families disrupted, and all of the lost potential. Unlike Crestwood Mall, Chesterfield Mall was not really in bad physical shape when it closed. It should have had many more years of usable life left in it.
I don’t get it. The weather is miserable 8+ out of 12 months in most places. There’s tons of retail shops that could be inside. “Anti-mall” is just a fad. (Or, have the big chain stores like Walmart *become* the mall?)
St. Louis developers are addicted to building new retail, even though there is no demand. There was an amazing article in the Post-Dispatch several years ago that showed that retail has been stagnant in the St. Louis region for at least 30 years. But yet, they keep building new retail, over and over again. I know of strip malls that have been half empty for 30 years.