NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo.—Demolition of the former Jamestown Mall, which was expected to be done by the summer of 2024, will extend into early 2025, the St. Louis County Port Authority, which owns the site, confirmed this week to Spectrum News. A spokesperspon said the delay is because the agency decided not to send materials to a landfill.

The 142-acre site has been vacant since 2014 and had long been an eyesore and problem property due to vandals.

Demolition began in September 2023. Questions about the site’s redevelopment remain unanswered.

At least one resident at a town hall meeting Wednesday night held by County Council Chair Shalonda Webb voiced frustration about the lack of a vision for the site, compared to the work underway in West County, where a private developer is demolishing the former Chesterfield Mall and starting work on a “Downtown Chesterfield” concept.

“We need a plan. I don’t want to see West County get something and we don’t get anything,” Jessica Ross said. 

Webb reminded the audience at Hazelwood East High School about the differences between the two projects–private ownership in Chesterfield compared to the Port Authority’s ownership of the Jamestown property, but suggested the clock was ticking to see forward progress.

“It already took ten years to tear this down, we’re not going to take five more years to redevelop it,” Webb said.  

A proposal to turn the property into an industrial logistics park and distribution center emerged in 2018 but was shelved in 2021 after Webb and others opposed it. 

A December 2022 Market Analysis and Feasibility Study identified an Agriculture-Food Technology campus as a “preferred direction” for the site that would work with other Ag-tech efforts in the region.

Other options in the study included senior housing featuring assisted living and single-family homes, with some commercial development. The study found that ideas like bringing large-scale retail or sports parks to the site were repetitive in North St. Louis County specifically, or the St. Louis area more generally.

Webb said Wednesday she believes the site is feasible to address community needs, including workforce development, youth activities, single family and senior housing, and some small form of retail and restaurants. 

The community, she said, has to understand what’s sustainable.

'There will never be a mall again. If my grandmother who’s 88 is shopping online, then we’ll never have a mall again."

A spokesperson for the St. Louis Port Authority said Thursday no determination had been made on if a request for proposals would include whether the property ends up being privately owned or in some form of partnership with the Port Authority.