Swedish fashion retailer H&M, which over the last several decades has expanded rapidly with new stores, announced in January that it would slow its new store pace and even shutter some locations.
But it seems to be doubling down in the Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ market.
H&M will open a new 20,000-square-foot store in St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights. The store is expected to open in 2019 and will be the retailer’s fourth in the region.
H&M is also expanding in West County Center, where it will soon finish work on a 31,500-square-foot, two-story store.
Also under construction in St. Peters is a 21,000-square-foot H&M store at Mid Rivers Mall that mall officials have said is part of a broader plan to bring more shoppers through its doors.
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H&M also has stores at Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ Galleria and Chesterfield Outlets (formerly the Taubman Prestige Outlets).
The Chesterfield location could close as developer Michael Staenberg, who took control of the outlet mall earlier this year, is planning to redevelop the facility into an entertainment destination called The District next summer.
St. Clair Square, Mid Rivers Mall and West County Center are all owned by Tennessee-based CBL Properties, which also owns South County Center.
More stores planned at West County Center
Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ is the most lucrative market for CBL, accounting for more than 7 percent of its total $927 million in sales last year.
Leading the local market is West County Center, which is among CBL’s three most successful mall properties in terms of sales per square foot.
In its latest annual report, CBL said West County Center’s sales per square foot averaged $502 — only Fayette Mall in Lexington, Ky., and CoolSprings Galleria in Nashville, Tenn., reported better figures in that regard.
Sean Phillips, marketing director for CBL in Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ, said sales-per-square-foot figures for West County Center in the first quarter grew more than 10 percent.
Aside from the H&M under construction there, several new or expanding tenants are driving sales at the mall.
Altar’d State, a boutique clothing retailer, is expanding into a 10,000-square-foot space on the mall’s first level near Macy’s. Dry Goods, a women’s fashion retailer and subsidiary of Von Maur Department Stores, will open a 3,800-square-foot store near Nordstrom later this summer. And near Macy’s, NobilTea, which sells teas and other drinks, will open.
Meanwhile, the restaurant and wine bar Copia will open in the 7,600-square-foot restaurant space formerly occupied by The Elephant Bar in the fall.
CBL’s other Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ-area malls saw sales per square foot rise in the single digits in the first quarter, according to a spokeswoman.
Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ’ stock of regional shopping malls is under intense pressure to evolve as brick-and-mortar properties compete with various market factors such as e-commerce and changing consumer shopping habits.
More than half of Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ’ traditional malls are in . Many of them are destined for futures drastically different from their apparel-focused past.
