The South County Center mall may see a transformation in the coming years — an effort by local officials to rehabilitate the struggling mall. What has become a dying retail center with a closed-off second floor could be renovated into a sports complex and event center, should things look promising in an upcoming feasibility study.
The sports center would likely have a focus on ice rinks for youth hockey, 6th District County Councilman Mike Archer recently said, but it could also work for events when it isn’t being used — similar to the Enterprise Center, which hosts the St. Louis Blues as well as concerts and other large gatherings — though on a smaller scale. The mall, located at 18 S. County Center Way, is in Archer’s district.
“We could take the boards down, we could throw some plywood down, and all of a sudden, this becomes an events center,” Archer said.
The County Council passed a resolution in December that would allow the Explore St. Louis tourism organization to conduct a $135,000 feasibility study on the project. Archer later discussed the potential of the sports center at a town hall, which took place on Jan. 7. South County residents offered comments about the project.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea for the months of the year that those hockey clubs are active,” one resident said. “Any good use of that area is wonderful.”
One resident raised concerns about how a new ice rink would affect other local rinks and teams. She mentioned three South County venues — the Meramec Sharks hockey club at 6297 Lemay Ferry Road, the All American Sports Mall at 11133 Lindbergh Business Court and the Affton Ice Rink at 10300 Gravois Road — and asked Archer what those business owners thought of a sports complex opening at the address of the South County Center.
Archer said the feasibility study would gauge that factor: how this rink would affect other rinks in the area. He also pointed out that those venues are not event centers and that the new rink could be rented out for practice. By offering an extra ice rink in South County, he believes that local youth teams would have more opportunities to get on the ice.
“I know some hockey parents that have 10 and 12-year-old boys and girls, and their ice time is at 10:35 p.m.,” Archer said. “(The new complex) would alleviate some of that.”
Another resident, whose husband is a hockey coach, echoed Archer. She said that her husband’s team practices on four different ice rinks because it can sometimes prove difficult to compete with other teams for ice time.
“Ever since the Blues won the Stanley Cup, hockey has exploded in this area. There’s just not enough ice,” she said. “I promise, it’s going to be a good thing.”