The Crossings at Northwest is a mixed-use commercial center containing 400,000 SF of retail and 500,000 SF of office uses located in St. Ann, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It was redeveloped from the old Northwest Plaza. The former mall comprised nearly of gross leasable area, making it the 27th largest mall in the United States according to the International Council of Shopping Centers prior to its closure. With a total of of enclosed space, it was the largest enclosed mall in the state of Missouri. The mall featured nine anchor stores and more than 210 stores at its peak.
History
Beginning
Northwest Plaza opened in 1965 as an open-air shopping center comprising 1,600,000 square feet of retail space. The developers were Louis Zorensky, Milton Zorensky and Saul Brodsky. At the time the mall opened, it was the largest mall in the world. It was anchored by Famous-Barr, JCPenney, and Sears. Junior anchors included local department stores Vandervoort's (opened in 1965) and Boyd's (an upscale apparel store), a Walgreens pharmacy, and a two-story Woolworth dime store. The Famous-Barr (later Macy's) store also featured a rotunda. In 1969, a 12-story adjacent office tower was added to the mall. Stix Baer & Fuller later joined the center between 1971 and 1983. When Vandervoort's closed, its building was leased by Famous-Barr to use as its home fashions store while the basement was leased to Venture Stores for office space. Dillard's acquired and re-branded all Stix, Baer & Fuller stores in 1984 including the River Roads Mall location in North St. Louis County.
Paramount
Paramount enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989, adding more than of retail space in the process. The enclosed space contained nearly , making it one of the largest malls in the country. The biggest change was remodeling the Famous-Barr home store/Venture office space into a mixed-use complex. A Tilt! arcade, including an 18-hole miniature golf course, was opened in the basement, the main level became a 12-bay food court, and a 9-screen movie theater was added on the upper level, replacing a freestanding cinema complex in the mall's parking lot. Kids "R" Us was also added shortly after the mall's enclosure, and the large Woolworth store was shuttered in early 1989 when the mall terminated its lease. Phar-Mor and Oshman's Sporting Goods were added in the early 1990s. In 1993 Phar-Mor closed due to a corporate scandal that threw the company into bankruptcy. After a mid-1990s lull with occupancy dropping to 86%, an unorthodox approach revived the struggling mall increasing occupancy to 96%. Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened one of its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997. Also, opening in 1997 was the area's first Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill.
Westfield
Northwest Plaza was acquired in late 1997 by the Westfield Group for $111 million, who renamed the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest" in June 2005) to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio. Under Westfield's tenure, the mall opened many new stores. Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Oshman's, Schweig Engel Furniture moved into the old Phar-Mor, and many other stores: American Eagle Outfitters, and Bath & Body Works opened. Gap, which had closed in 1996, returned to the mall. By 1999, the occupancy rate had increased to 98%. Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation, but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a children's play area. Around this time, Westfield instead focused more on driving customer business to other area malls such as West County Center in Des Peres and Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, in turn neglecting Northwest Plaza, along with its redevelopment and upkeep. The first major vacancy at Northwest Plaza was JCPenney in 2002. Northwest Plaza had the second lowest occupancy rate of a Westfield mall, which was just 79% at year-end 2004.
Somera
After years of continued decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in June 2006 to Somera Capital Management, LLC. After having bought the mall for $45 million, with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent, the mall's name reverted to Northwest Plaza. As per the Federated Stores/May Co. merger, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's. Later in 2007, the Tilt closed for good.