One City Center (St. Louis)
Encyclopedia
One City Center is an office tower complex and former shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

 in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

.

The 25-story office tower is the ninth-tallest habitable building in St. Louis at a height of 375 feet (114.3 m). The mall itself is only four stories, however, with a green, white, and glass façade. When the mall opened in 1985, St. Louis Centre was the largest urban shopping mall in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, with over 150 stores with 20 restaurants in 1500000 ft2. The $95 million complex was originally to be developed by the May Company and called May Mall, but development for the mall was given to the Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group
Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate company, ranked #1 in the United States as the largest real estate investment trust. Simon is a fully integrated real estate company which operates from five retail real estate platforms: regional malls, Premium Outlet Centers, The...

.

St. Louis Centre opened in 1985, with anchor stores Famous-Barr
Famous-Barr
The Famous-Barr Co. , St. Louis, Missouri, was a division of Macy's, Inc. . It was formerly the hometown division of The May Department Stores Company, which was acquired by Federated on August 30, 2005. On February 1, 2006, it was subsumed into the newly created Macy's Midwest division.The...

 at one end and Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...

 at the other. The anchor location of Famous Barr also contained that companies corporate offices, and the corporate headquarters of the May Company
May Company
May Company may refer to several American businesses:*The May Department Stores Company, a defunct retail company acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2006**May Company California, a defunct California department store that merged with J. W...

. The Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...

 location was once the flagship, and headquarters of Stix,Baer, and Fuller, with that chain being sold to Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...

 just as mall construction commenced. The mall was initially popular and featured national chain stores.
As the 1990's progressed the mall faced challenges with the redevelopment of the Westroads Shopping Center into the
St. Louis Galleria
St. Louis Galleria
The Saint Louis Galleria is a shopping mall in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights. The mall is owned and operated by General Growth Properties...

. By the mid-1990's Dillard's
Dillard's
Dillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...

 converted it's location into one of it's clearance stores, and no longer carried regular day to day merchandise, this location closed for good in 2001.

In recent years, the mall has undergone a series of financial troubles. In 2006, the almost-vacant mall closed, and was bought by The Pyramid Companies and was planned to be turned into condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

s and retail space, though the plan was never realized, as Pyramid closed in 2008 due to financial troubles. The mall was foreclosed in 2009 by lender Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

 and later bought for $12.7 million by Environmental Operations. In 2009, the building was about 85% vacant, and other developers were trying to raise funding for a renovation of the mall. Plans included a $35 million renovation, turning much of the complex into parking space, as well as a $29 million project to attract tenants to the center's office tower. The project, led by investor Stacy Hastie, includes plans for local law firm Lewis, Rice & Fingersh and accounting firm LarsonAllen LLP
LarsonAllen LLP
LarsonAllen LLP is the 18th largest accounting firm in the United States with approximately 1,800 people. LarsonAllen has offices in the Midwest, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, South Central, Southeast, and Southwest regions of the United States.- History :Since its inception in 1953, when Rholan...

 to move into the building. Earlier, the Missouri Development Finance Board had approved a $5 million loan for the project. In May 2010, work began to convert part of the building into a 750-car parking garage and retail complex.
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