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Mid Rivers Mall is getting a 120,000-square-foot addition, including a 70,000-square-foot "village" with the feel of an urban shopping and dining experience, mall officials said Wednesday.



The addition will include street entrances and restaurants with outdoor seating. In all, the work will make room for about 25 new stores and restaurants. Mid Rivers, which was built in 1987, now has 170 stores.



In addition to the village section, the mall will get a 50,000-square-foot Dick's Sporting Goods store. It will be the second Dick's Sporting Goods in the area. The other is at West County Mall.

This seems like a nice addition to the mall. Though I'd like to see another mall/lifestyle center built somewhere else in St Charles.

I guess its good that MR is getting a Dcik's Sporting Goods, but I was at Best Buy the other day thinking "Damn, with its prominent spot by the interstate, just tear it down and bring in an IKEA!" I know everyone is not a fan of IKEA, but at least people from the region would come here for it (prefer it in STL county at least). I know they need an insane amount of space, like 300,000 sq ft, but just wishful thinking



Good news for St. Charles, but bad for other malls in STL per se.

absolut355 wrote:I know everyone is not a fan of IKEA, but at least people from the region would come here for it (prefer it in STL county at least). I know they need an insane amount of space, like 300,000 sq ft, but just wishful thinking

I'm still holding out a glimmer of hope that those old IKEA at Northwest Plaza rumors might come true!



As for the Mid-Rivers expansion, I think it's probably overdue. I doubt, though, that expansion will impact other area malls (other than sealing Jamestown's fate, but that's another thread.....)

I was wondering how long it would take for something like that to happen when I looked through the list of words we have set to be censored.

I wonder which way the expansion will go? There's not a lot of space unless they add a garage for parking.

JustMe123 wrote:

absolut355 wrote:I know everyone is not a fan of IKEA, but at least people from the region would come here for it (prefer it in STL county at least). I know they need an insane amount of space, like 300,000 sq ft, but just wishful thinking

I'm still holding out a glimmer of hope that those old IKEA at Northwest Plaza rumors might come true!



As for the Mid-Rivers expansion, I think it's probably overdue. I doubt, though, that expansion will impact other area malls (other than sealing Jamestown's fate, but that's another thread.....)

I was at in Chicago this last weekend and stopped at the new IKEA in Bollingbrook. While eating in the restaurant two employees were having lunch next to us. I asked if they knew anything about a St. Louis expansion and they said it will be coming soon. Apparently nobody is hired in as a manager in IKEA and everyone must work through the ranks to get to that level. IKEA wants to expand 5 stores per year for the next 10 years in North America and having qualified managers is the biggest hurdle.



One guy said they recently came trough asking if people would move to certain places and St. Louis was on the list. He said he reluctantly listed St. Louis because there's too many Cardinal fans down here.



I asked him if he heard where in St. Louis and he didn't know anything.



I doubt if there's any place at Mid Rivers for a store the size of IKEAs anyway. That Bollingbrook one had to be at least 150,000 sq ft on two levels. If they did do the Mid Rivers area, it would have to go on the other side of 70.



My hope is St. Louis Marketplace would be nuked for an IKEA.



They opened an IKEA in Atlanta last year in a brownfield area to the west of downtown where a factory used to be. If they were real ballsy a location along Kass north of downtown St. Louis could be interesting.

I was in Orlando a couple of weeks ago and their new IKEA will be 300,000 square feet.

I don't think an expanded Mid Rivers is a threat to any St. Louis County mall. Most people I know in St. Louis County avoid anything in St. Charles like the plague, with the possible exception of the City of St. Charles itself, which does have some redeeming qualities.



I had to laugh at the use of "urban village" to describe the new addition, when it will be surrounded by acres of parking. Let's just call it a lifestyle center attached to the front of a mall, shall we?



I suppose it could siphon some customers from Northwest or Jamestown, but those malls are on life support anyway. And St. Louis Mills is a joke that never should've been built IMHO.

No Kass



Cass



Same with Carr

Irish names I think