Bringing The Lifestyle Format To St. Louis
The Meadows at Lake Saint Louis answers the growing demand for specialty retail in St. Louis.
Jaime Lackey

Tenants at The Meadows at Lake St. Louis include Bed Bath & Beyond, Coldwater Creek, Chico’s, White House|Black Market, Banana Republic, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor Loft, Talbots, Jos. A. Bank, The Walking Company, Bath & Body Works, Kay Jewelers, Claire’s, Sunglass Hut, Yankee Candle, Lenscrafters Optique, Eddie Bauer, New Balance, NY & Co., Select Comfort, Gymboree, and Christopher & Banks.

The first lifestyle center in the St. Louis market will bring high-end retail, including a Von Maur department store, to a growing area of metro St. Louis.

“The St. Louis MSA has 2.5 million people,” says Karen Land, leasing manager with Davis Street Land Company. “It is unique to find a market of this size that doesn’t have a lifestyle center.”

Chicago-based Davis Street Land Company is partnering with developer and long-time St. Louis resident Bruce Johnston to develop The Meadows at Lake Saint Louis. The project is located on 64 acres at the intersection of Interstate 64/U.S. 40 and Lake Saint Louis Boulevard in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, which is approximately 40 miles west of downtown St. Louis. Creve Coeur, Missouri-based M+H Architects designed the project.

At build-out, The Meadows at Lake Saint Louis is expected to total approximately 500,000 square feet of retail space. The first phase, which will open in August, will include 260,000 square feet of junior anchors, restaurants, and specialty retail stores.

Tenants will include Bed Bath & Beyond, Coldwater Creek, Chico’s, White House|Black Market, Banana Republic, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor Loft, Talbots, Jos. A. Bank, The Walking Company, Bath & Body Works, Kay Jewelers, Claire’s, Sunglass Hut, Yankee Candle, Lenscrafters Optique, Eddie Bauer, New Balance, NY & Co., Select Comfort, Gymboree, and Christopher & Banks.

At build-out, The Meadows at Lake Saint Louis is expected to total approximately 500,000 square feet of retail space. The first phase, which will open in August, will include 260,000 square feet of junior anchors, restaurants, and specialty retail stores.

Local restaurateur Bill Cardwell also plans to open a new concept called BC’s Kitchen. Cardwell has a popular restaurant at Davis Street Land’s upscale Plaza Frontenac, an enclosed mall in another suburb of St. Louis. “BC’s Kitchen is more family-oriented and more casual,” says Land. “But it will still serve only the finest quality foods and will have some of Bill’s signature items, like hearth-baked pizzas.”

In total, Land expects the center to have five to seven restaurants. Some restaurant companies have questioned whether the community has the daytime population to create a lunch demand. “There are 25,000 office workers and 11 hotels within a 10-minute drive,” Land says.

Additionally, Kansas City-based Ferguson Properties will develop a 110- to 120-room hotel on 3 acres at The Meadows at Lake Saint Louis. The $12 million hotel, which will fly a Marriott or Hilton flag, will open in spring 2009.

Davis Street Land has also signed Von Maur to anchor the project. The Davenport, Iowa-based company plans to open a two-story, 130,000-square-foot department store in fall 2010. This will be the company’s first store in Missouri.

An overview of Davis Street Land Company’s The Meadows at Lake St. Louis in St. Charles County, Missouri.

In the meantime, Davis Street Land Company is looking to sign additional restaurants and junior retailers for its first phase.

“Forty-five percent of the people in the trade area fall in the 25 to 54 age range. Thirty percent of the households in the trade area have kids under the age of 17,” Land notes. “We’re looking for stores that appeal to younger demographics.”

Retailers are attracted by the area’s population growth and increasing incomes. “The population of the St. Louis MSA has grown by 2 percent in the last 5 years,” notes Land. “This trade area has grown 22 percent in the last 5 years, and it is predicted to grow another 15 percent in the next 5 years.”

She adds, “In 2005, St. Charles County had 65 percent of the housing permits issued in the St. Louis market. We have the biggest concentration of new homes in the whole trade area. And there are 7,600 homes under construction or master-planned within a 3-mile radius.”

The trade area currently has 350,000 people and the average household income is $77,480. Forty-three percent of the households in the area have an annual income of more than $75,000 per year; 24 percent earn more than $100,000 per year.

“The area can support better retail,” Land says. “And for the majority of the retailers committed to the project, this will be their first store in St. Charles County.”

She adds, “There is no regional mall competition within a 10-mile radius. The closest regional centers are Mid Rivers Mall (10 miles away) and Chesterfield Mall (15 miles away.)”

“The key to creating a successful lifestyle center is to build in a community with great demographics, to provide an opportunity to bring in specialty stores not in the market, and to choose retailers appropriate for the market,” Land notes. “Even if you are competing with a regional mall, a lifestyle center will be successful if you do not duplicate tenants and if you choose a market with good demographics.”

“Lifestyle centers are not a fad,” she says. “They will continue to grow. If they are well positioned with unique tenants, they will continue to thrive.”