One City Center (St. Louis) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids One City Center |
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| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 515 North 6th Street, St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Coordinates | 38°37′49″N 90°11′24″W / 38.6303°N 90.1899°W |
| Height | |
| Roof | 375 feet (114 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 25 |
One City Center (also known as 600 Washington or St. Louis Centre) is a tall office building in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. It used to be a huge shopping mall! This building is one of the tallest in St. Louis. It stands at about 375 feet (114 meters) high.
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What is One City Center?
One City Center is a 25-story office tower. It is the ninth-tallest building in St. Louis. The building complex also used to include a large shopping mall. The mall had four floors. It featured a cool design with green, white, and glass.
A Giant Mall Opens
When the mall opened in 1985, it was called St. Louis Centre. It was the biggest city shopping mall in the United States! It had over 150 stores and 20 restaurants. The mall covered a huge area of 1,500,000 square feet (139,355 square meters). This big project cost about $95 million.
The mall had two main department stores. These were Famous-Barr at one end and Dillard's at the other. The Famous-Barr store was the company's main location. It also held their main offices. The Dillard's store used to be the main store for another company called Stix, Baer and Fuller. This company was sold to Dillard's just as the mall was being built. St. Louis Centre was very popular at first. It had many well-known national stores.
Challenges and Changes
As the 1990s continued, the mall faced some problems. A new, popular shopping center called the Saint Louis Galleria opened. This new mall attracted many shoppers away from St. Louis Centre.
By the mid-1990s, Dillard's changed its store. It became a clearance store. This meant it only sold discounted items. It no longer carried regular new merchandise. This Dillard's location closed completely in 2001.
In 2006, the mall was almost empty. It was often called a "dead mall." It closed down and was bought by a company. They planned to turn it into apartments and new stores. However, this plan never happened. The company faced money problems and closed in 2008.
New Life for the Building
In 2009, a bank took over the building. Later, it was bought by a company called Environmental Operations. The building was mostly empty at this time. About 85% of it had no tenants.
New plans were made to fix up the building. One plan involved a $35 million renovation. This would turn much of the old mall into a parking garage. Another project aimed to attract new businesses to the office tower.
In May 2010, work began on the building. Part of it was converted into a large parking garage for 750 cars. It also included plans for new shops and entertainment. This new area was named Mercantile Exchange. The skybridges that connected the mall to other buildings were taken down. This helped open up the streets around the building.
