St. Charles hopes new ownership brings back Charlestowne Mall glory days

St. Charles and Charlestowne Mall officials believe the days of hearing the echo of your footsteps while walking through the shopping center will soon be over.

A California-based duo are the new owners of the mall, city officials announced Wednesday, securing a bargain on the site after it sat for more than three years on the market.

Alan Wong and partner Bobby Montayne head the ownership group, known as Charlestowne Mall, LLC.

Wong has a history of at least attempting to revitalize one shopping mall, known at various times as Vallco Shopping Mall in Cupertino, Calif. That mall continues to have it's struggles after plans to fund the ongoing revitalization of the mall with a large, adjacent condominium development fell through after proving unpopular with voters.

Neither Wong nor Montayne were present Wednesday for the city's joint announcement with mall management about the ownership change.

The mall's current manager, Kathy Kekatos, will continue to manage the facility under the new owners. She expects they will be in town in coming weeks to discuss more detailed plans about their vision for the mall's future.

That vision, Kekatos said, involves more "attractions and events to revitalize the mall" and stabilizing its relationship with current tenants.

Marketing the mall to draw new tenants is the first order of business. As to how that will actually happen, Kekatos said, "You're gonna have to stay tuned for that."

City officials said they've anxiously awaited closing of the mall sale since rumors of potential new ownership surfaced late last year. City Administrator Brian Townsend said they've been checking the status of the sale about every 30 days since word came in December that new owners had signed a purchase contract.

After six months of researching the deal and a reported cash exchange in the neighborhood of $12 million, Charlestowne Mall became the property of Wong and Montayne as of Monday.

Townsend said only about 30 percent of the mall's spaces are occupied, but if you take into account the space used by the anchor stores, that number shoots up to more than 70 percent. That said, both city and mall officials agreed Wednesday there is a lot of work to do.

"We're here today to open a new chapter in one of our community's most significant economic generators," St. Charles Mayor Don DeWitte said.

If the mall can fill 100,000 square feet of the currently vacant space, the city would stand to gain as much as $400,000 in sales tax revenue.

The city and other local taxing bodies could also gain if the assessed value of the mall rises as more tenants come in, according to Chris Aiston, the city's economic development director. He said there's no reason an indoor shopping mall can't thrive in St. Charles.

"The city has long believed that there is sufficient buying power within a 15 minute drive time to this mall to sustain and make it successful," Aiston said. "We never bought into what was really urban myth about Charlestowne Mall failing because of the Randall Road phenomenon. That alone did not kill Charlestowne Mall. In our view, it was more about mismanagement by the former ownership."

DeWitte said he expects improvements to the mall's interior will be a priority. The city recently set in motion plans to chop some of the land parcels adjoining the mall into smaller pieces to encourage more business growth and move away from the vision of an expanded Charlestowne Mall. DeWitte said that plan hasn't changed.

"There is no discussion about any expansion of this existing foot print," DeWitte said. "I believe Charlestowne Mall Investments' intent is to improve and stabilize and revitalize this existing foot print before they even think about discussing expansion either outside the existing foot print or onto adjacent property."