St. Clair Square opens doors from coronavirus shutdown, but not all stores are ready
Editor’s note: This story was updated to report that the Dillard’s store at St. Clair Square reopened Tuesday.
St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights reopened Monday with little fanfare after more than two months of being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About a third of the shopping mall’s 130 stores and kiosks welcomed back customers.
“When we reopen malls, we expect that only a handful of stores will reopen on the first day, and then other retailers will gradually reopen over the next several days,” said Stacey Keating, senior director of public relations for CBL Properties, which operates St. Clair Square.
Macy’s was one of the large department stores that reopened Monday, and Dillard’s followed on Tuesday. Mall manager Michael Hagen wasn’t sure about the schedule for the J.C. Penney store, whose company filed for bankruptcy last month.
“I talked to the manager, but she didn’t have a date,” Hagen said. “I have no reason to suspect that they will not reopen.”
St. Clair Square hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. Customers are asked to wear face coverings and follow social-distancing guidelines outlined in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan for restarting the economy.
What happens if someone doesn’t wear a mask?
“We’ll manage that on a case-by-case basis,” Keating said. “We understand that there are some exceptions to wearing masks based on age and other personal considerations. We just ask that people follow the guidelines that are required by law.”
Other coronavirus-related precautions at St. Clair Square include:
- Food-court restaurants are open for carryouts, but the seating area is closed.
- Children’s play areas and other places that people would normally congregate are off-limits.
- Hand-sanitizer stations are scattered throughout the mall.
- CBL management, security guards and janitorial staff must get temperatures checked before shifts to ensure that no one has a fever.
- Employees have increased frequency of cleaning and sanitation of high-traffic common areas and “touch points.”
Other stores that reopened at St. Clair Square Monday include Kirkland’s, Finish Line, Forever 21, House of Hoops by Foot Locker, Journeys, Pandora, Shoe Dept. Encore and Buckle.
“We had a great opening day,” Hagen said late in the afternoon. “It’s good to be back.”
Stores that are deciding when to reopen must consider several factors, including access to personal protective equipment, extra cleaning requirements, which employees will return to work and how to arrange merchandise and counters to accommodate social distancing.
“We’ve not heard of any stores (at St. Clair Square) that are not planning to reopen,” Keating said.
CBL Properties, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, operates 63 shopping malls in 26 states. All have reopened except five, including four in Pennsylvania and one in Maryland, and some of those have allowed stores with exterior entrances to reopen.
CBL operates South County Center, which reopened May 18 along with other St. Louis-area malls. Retail stores were allowed to reopen in Illinois on Friday with restrictions under Phase 3 of Pritzker’s plan.
“(At St. Clair Square), we were just waiting on final clarification,” Keating said. “Our malls closed as a result of government orders, and that’s what we have used to reopen them as well.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 7:08 PM.
