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

Town-hall meeting on Crestwood Court tentatively set for March 20

A tentative date for a town-hall meeting with representatives of the owners of Crestwood Court has been set for March 20, according to Mayor Jeff Schlink.

Schlink told the Crestwood Board of Aldermen last night — Tuesday, Feb. 26 — that Vic Pildes and Sol Barket, of Centrum Properties, will tentatively participate in a town-hall meeting that will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Whitecliff gymnasium to discuss the redevelopment of the mall.

The format, according to Schlink, will be different than the first town-hall meeting with Centrum.

Pildes and Barket will give a 10- to 15-minute presentation, Schlink will “make a few comments” and the rest of the meeting will be an open-microphone format, the mayor said.

“That’s the current plan that we have,” Schlink told the board, “and I’m not sure if Centrum’s presentation will be available prior to the meeting. I would expect not. I would expect that it would be unveiled that evening so they could speak to it.”

Schlink said he does not expect “much, if any, change” to Centrum’s proposal.

Centrum, the mall’s owner along with Angelo Gordon Co., proposed an open-air entertainment and retail venue last June that would include restaurants, a movie theater and a bowling concept.

As proposed, the total redevelopment cost is roughly $121 million, with economic assistance in the form of tax-increment financing, or TIF, a transportation development district, or TDD, and a community improvement district, or CID, reaching roughly $34 million, according to revised numbers presented to the city.

Centrum’s initial plan listed the total cost at roughly $102 million, not including the second phase of the project, and economic assistance for both phases at nearly $42 million. Barket told the board during a work session in November that Centrum reduced its CID and TDD sales-tax requests to 0.75 percent from 1 percent.

Centrum and Angelo Gordon purchased the mall property from the Westfield Group in 2008.