Background
Jamestown Mall was originally developed in 1972 as an enclosed shopping center. The Mall was permanently closed in 2014 and is currently owned by the St. Louis County Port Authority. The Property also has been the subject of two redevelopment RFPs issued by the Port in 2018 and in 2020. No action was taken following the 2018 RFP and a proposal submitted in 2020 to purchase and redevelop the property for a light industrial/logistics use with limited retail was withdrawn due to a lack of community support.
As a result, the Port Authority conducted a Market Analysis and Feasibility Study in 2022 that combined a comprehensive market analysis of a wide range of realistic redevelopment scenarios with extensive community engagement.
Planning Team
The Port Authority retained a planning team to perform the Market Analysis and Feasibility Study. The planning team was led by the i5Group, along with the Community Planning Lab of St. Louis University, Added Dimension, Stock & Associates, and &Access. Four out of the five organizations of the planning team are St. Louis based.
The i5Group is a community planning firm that has worked throughout the St. Louis region, recently leading a feasibility study and land use master plan for Spanish Lake. Robert Lewis, who brings over four decades of experience in economic development, led the market analysis. Bob, who teaches at St. Louis University, performed the market analysis through the Community Planning Lab of St. Louis University. &Access assisted with strategies to grow local business and entrepreneurship. Added Dimension led the community engagement. Added Dimension is skilled in grassroots community engagement. Finally, Stock & Associates, a St. Louis based civil engineering firm, assisted with the analysis of existing utilities and potential infrastructure modifications. Short bios of the team leaders are below.
Stephen Ibendahl | Project Manager
Principal of The i5Group, Stephen brings over 25 years of experience in community and urban planning, public affairs, landscape architecture, and project management. His management and project experience includes a wide range of projects including: comprehensive planning, land-use planning, and urban design. The i5Group focuses on community planning throughout the St. Louis region. The i5Group was honored to receive the 2019 ‘Outstanding Plan Making Award’ by the St. Louis Section of the American Planning Association. Stephen brings trusted public engagement and facilitation experience in working with community groups, whether it is a committee of 10 or a standing room only crowd of over 100.
Bob Lewis | Market Analysis and Economic Development
Bob is presently an assistant professor of urban planning and development at Saint Louis University after almost 42 years as a practicing planner and economic development consultant. He was one of the founding employees of Development Strategies in 1988, a consulting firm with a nationwide practice. Bob served clients in 42 states until his retirement from Development Strategies at the end of 2017. In addition to his current teaching responsibilities, Bob continues to consult in the fields of urban planning, economic development, and real estate development.
Bobby Boone | Local Business and Entrepreneur Strategies
With nearly a decade of experience immersed in retail real estate, Bobby is impassioned about empowering engaged tenants, developers, and cities to create community-serving retail. He ensures the viability and sustainability of retail environments with tailored solutions that draw on his market analysis, planning, and strategic merchandising expertise. He currently serves on the senior leadership team for creating a community of professionals dedicated to thwarting commercial small business displacement and creates innovative small business real estate solutions.
MaryAnn Taylor Crate | Community Engagement
MaryAnn is the Principal of Added Dimension, LLC. She has over 20 years of experience in designing and implementing outreach and communication initiatives that engages the public in the planning and execution of public-sector projects and programs taking place in their neighborhoods and communities. Her experience includes extensive media training; planning and coordinating public meetings, open houses, community education workshops and forums; development of community-based communication plans and grassroots community engagement strategies; and management of transit-oriented development projects.
George Stock | Utilities, Infrastructure, Capital Improvements
George has over thirty-five years of consulting experience in the areas of Civil Engineering Design, Land Surveying, Land Planning, and project management, and currently is President of Stock and Associates Consulting Engineers, Inc. George has extensive experience with municipal engineering and land development in forty-two (42) states, including site improvement design, sanitary waste water treatment and storm sewer systems, storm water detention and storm water quality facilities design, floodplain development, highway design and governmental permit processing. Mr. Stock has a proven record of leadership and managerial accomplishments which include the on-time design completion of more than six thousand eight hundred (6,800) municipal, sports recreation, commercial, institutional, industrial, residential and highway projects ranging in size from 1.0 acre to 10,000 acres, located in forty-two (42) states.