Saint Louis Galleria

Saint Louis Galleria is a shopping mall in Richmond Heights, Missouri.

History

Originally the site of the Westroads Shopping Center anchored by Stix Baer & Fuller, the property was sold in 1984 to Hycel Properties, which demolished most of the mall (but not the Stix or North Wing which included Walgreens (demolished & now a recently closed Weber Grill restaurant) and built the Saint Louis Galleria. Dillard's, which had acquired the Stix chain, expanded the existing location at the same time, while retailer Mark Shale opened a major store.

In 1991, the building was expanded south of the Atrium. The Clayton Famous-Barr store (now Macy's) moved to the Galleria and luxury department store Lord & Taylor opened on the south end. The addition also included an emergency electric generator that can supply limited lighting and monitoring functions (but not full operations) during a power failure. The mall receives external electric service from four points. It adopted the enclosed delivery corridor concept (but very little of the actual structure) from the Westroads design. Trucks enter on the south end and exit on the north end. The original loading dock for the Stix store (which remains in operation) is very similar in design to the loading dock at River Roads Mall, another Stix-developed shopping mall.

The first Build-A-Bear location was opened in October of 1997. It was the second mall in St. Louis to have an Apple Store (and formerly the area's only Apple mini store), hosts the area's only Urban Outfitters, and along with West County Center is seen as one of Metro St. Louis's "upscale" shopping malls.

On October 8, 2002, The Cheesecake Factory opened at the mall, becoming the area's first location.

Beginning April 20, 2007, after two incidents between teenagers and rampant shoplifting, anyone under 16 is required to be accompanied by someone at least 21 years old on Fridays and Saturdays after 3pm

Around the same time, the Richmond Heights MetroLink station opened a short distance from the mall. The two incidents along with many shoplifting and brawling cases were constantly being blamed on MetroLink, simply due to the spike in the number of such cases at the mall in August 2006 compared to the previous month. This brought fear into white St. Louisans about their safety in the mall (as MetroLink is seen as being used primarily by black residents) and caused a decline in Galleria patronage.

In 2006, Nordstrom planned to open a store at the mall. In December 2008, Nordstrom said it would delay the opening of the store until 2011 due to the local economy.

The recession hit Galleria sales hard in 2008. Jimmy'z and Mark Shale closed. Richmond Heights, which gets half its revenue from sales taxes and for which the Galleria is the largest taxpayer, saw sales-tax receipts drop from $10.1 million in fiscal 2007 to $9.1 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2008. Mark Shale has since been replaced with two restaurants, Weber Grill Restaurant(now closed) and Texas de Brazil, and Helium Comedy Club.

In 2017, the mall was the site of protests after the acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith. There were arrests of 22 people.

In June 2018, a customer was stabbed by another customer at the mall.

In July 2020, a shooting inside the Galleria took place leaving one man dead and one man injured.

Anchor stores

* Dillard's,Saint Louis Galleria Store Directory
Saint Louis Galleria web site; retrieved December 28, 2006 opened 1955 as Stix, Baer, and Fuller and became Dillard's in 1984,
* Macy's, opened 1991 as Famous-Barr, became Macy's 2006,
* Nordstrom, opened September 2011, on site of demolished Lord & Taylor;

References

External links

Saint Louis Galleria

Saint Louis Galleria 6 Movie Theatre

{{Brookfield Properties

Brookfield Properties
Shopping malls in Missouri
Tourist attractions in St. Louis County, Missouri
Shopping malls established in 1984
1984 establishments in Missouri
Tourist attractions in St. Louis