South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Fresh, innovative approach urged for redeveloping Crestwood Court

To the editor:

This is an open letter to the owners of Crestwood Court: No one in the community expects much progress on the mall development

until the economy improves, but rather than viewing this economic lull as a negative, it can be viewed as an opportunity to create a

development plan that restores the property to its position as an economic engine for the area.

No doubt you have been using this time to look at trends in retail and seek potential tenants, but I would like to offer a different approach. Before introducing my idea, I’d like to state that I’m fully aware that the property comprising Crestwood Court is yours and that you will develop it as you see fit.

Having said that, to the extent that you will likely be approaching the city of Crestwood for public assistance in developing the property, it is not unreasonable to suggest that you provide an opportunity for members of this community to offer input in the planning phase of this development. After all, in addition to your company, it is the members of this community who have the most at stake in the outcome of this development and will feel the effects of its success or failure most acutely.

Rather than trying to develop the area in conjunction with traditional urban planners who rely on variations of a blueprint that is on its way to becoming irrelevant, why not seek fresh and innovative ideas from those who are not constrained by existing development business models?

You could do this by going to any one — or a combination — of the outstanding colleges and universities in the area. Who better to develop a sustainable plan for this space than those who are unencumbered by half-century-old development ideas and the history of the site itself?

You could propose to the deans of these schools an interdisciplinary project that would cull from various academic specialties: architecture, engineering, public policy, finance, et cetera. The benefit of this approach would be twofold as the students would gain valuable real-life experience in their fields of interest and the community would have an opportunity to collaborate with students so that whatever plan is created will be a response to the question of how area residents would like this space to be used.

While the student plan may not be fully implemented, it would at least guarantee that certain elements could not only be used, but would represent a shift in the traditional approach to developments. Why try to chase trends when you have an opportunity to set them?

This community represents the holy grail of marketing: brand loyalty. Many people who grew up here move back, and those who have lived here and are ready to retire would like to stay. Regardless of how the development plan evolves, it should respect certain known factors: the popularity of Grant’s Tail, the glut of retail in the area, the growth of Internet sales, the decreasing impact of “destination” shopping, the attraction of a first-class public school system, the possibility that the development area may need to be expanded, and finally, the need to minimize financial exposure that may require that a consortium of developers undertake the project.

Yes, it is possible to dust off the old blueprint and put in some big-box stores, create an indoor or outdoor mall as a space for destination shopping/entertainment or build another “lifestyle center,” but the weakness of any of these choices is that once their newness wears off, foot traffic will eventually decrease until we are back where we started.

For the plan to succeed well past the typical shelf-life of a development, it needs to represent a place that is not so much an attempt to draw traffic from surrounding areas as it is an effort to satisfy the needs of those who live in the community and will have the greatest impact on its success.

Martha Duchild

Crestwood

More to Discover