Big Dreams for Huge Youth Amateur Sports

Complex in Hazelwood at Mall Site Dropped

Over the last four years POWERplex, under Big Sports Properties, has been taking steps to make it a premier youth sports facility at the former St. Louis Mills Mall. The mall interior was in good shape for restructuring with indoor sports venues like basketball, volleyball and pickleball and has been used for such events the past 2-3 years.

The big plans for outdoor facilities such as youth baseball fields and a small stadium on the outer lots never came. The pandemic in 2020 prevented any progress on the outdoor expansion, even with support of the City of Hazelwood, St. Louis County and others in both business and amateur sports.

You can’t place blame on any local officials or the developers. Dan Buck, who coordinated the plans for Big Sports Properties, said it was difficult to keep the property safe while keeping all the sports groups and existing tenants involved.

The progress was really difficult during the post-Pandemic period with public restrictions. The first year, Buck scheduled concerts and movie nights on the parking lot which drew a lot of interest and keep the POWERplex name in front of the public. They also hosted high school graduations in 2020. A much real hindrance was keeping the interest from out of town groups who would make up the majority of the visitors most of them families who would come for the games, tournaments and stay in area hotels and eat at new restaurants planned for the area.

Big Sports will cease operation at the facility on May 1 after no agreement could be reached between POWERplex and Industrial Commerce properties. There was no announcement on who could take over the existing indoor facilities particularly the volleyball and pickleball courts. They could be converted to warehousing or kept for recreational use.

The new owners of the property is Cleveland-based real estate developer Industrial Commercial Properties and have already lined up tenants for the property now called Hazelwood Business Park. After the Cleveland based company bought the former St. Louis Mill site, it announced a planned scale back to 40 percent of the property to be used by POWERplex. Now it appears the entire property will be a business park and warehouse space.Cabela’s and the Ice Zone will remain

North County may have lost the dreams of a national amateur sports facility,

but bigger things are on the horizon. All eyes will be on the Saint Louis Zoo’s WildCare Park in Spanish Lake, With the Saint Zoo name and branding, this is a sure thing. The first animals will be arriving in 2023 and the targeted public opening for the $230 million new attraction with its Woodland Safari and Savanna Safari is planned for 2027.

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