ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A South County shopping center hit by the closure of a JCPenney Home Store location is set to undergo a $3 million redevelopment.
As part of the deal, Marshalls Plaza, at 6927 S. Lindbergh Blvd., will get three big-box stores: one new to the area and two that are moving from other locations.
Existing anchor tenant Marshalls, a discount retailer represented by Patrick Willett and Joe Ciapciak of Pace Properties, will move to a newly constructed building. Another discount retailer, Burlington, will open a new store in the 27,306-square-foot space being vacated by Marshalls. And craft store Michaels will open a 23,700-square-foot store in the plaza, replacing an existing location at Lindbergh and Mueller roads and filling the old JCPenney Home Store space. In addition, discounter Five Below will open a store in the plaza's newly constructed area, and the existing Tuesday Morning store will stay in its current 13,638-square-foot space.
A Los Angeles company, Equimax Management, owns the plaza, having paid $7 million for it in 2006. At that time, the firm, led by President Sean Namvar, was named Trifish. The shopping center was appraised at $6.6 million in 2021, down from $8.5 million in 2019, according to St. Louis County records.
Equimax has owned a series of other shopping centers in the region, specializing in purchasing half-vacant properties and leasing them. But at the time of its 2006 purchase, Marshalls Plaza was 95% leased.
The broker for the plaza, Jared Hancock of Scout Realty Group, said the redevelopment has been in the works for years, but was delayed by uncertainty in the retail sector earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the plaza’s anchor tenants, the JCPenney Home Store, closed in late 2019 and was set to be replaced by a shoe store until the pandemic hit, Hancock said.
That cleared the way for the three big-box retailers to sign on to the redevelopment, with all planning to occupy newly designed prototype stores that are smaller than their existing big-box stores, he said.
Demolition of part of the existing buildings at the shopping center is scheduled to start within the next two weeks, Hancock said. Michaels and Five Below could finish construction as early as August, although the time frame could move into 2023 depending how quickly permits are issued, Hancock said.
Altogether, Marshalls Plaza has 105,000 square feet of retail space, including a Wendy’s outlot.
The newly constructed building will house the new Marshalls store and Five Below. The renovated space featuring Michaels is next door.
Read the full story on the St. Louis Business Journal website.
