Samvida Batchu, senior, held her tenth birthday party at the American Girl Doll store at the Chesterfield Mall. 

“My mom bought me a doll that looked exactly like me, and I loved it. I cherished that doll,” Batchu said.

Batchu said she remembers all of her friends loving the store and other parts of the mall, like the train that went around for families with small children to ride in.

Even after most of the stores closed, Batchu continued going to the mall to play badminton in the courts placed in the food court and to use the empty parking lot to learn how to drive.

“It’s been there for so long, and it was such an integral part of the Chesterfield community,” Batchu said.

Chesterfield Mall officially closed on Saturday, Aug. 31, and a demolition date has been planned for Tuesday, Oct. 15. A $2 billion redevelopment project has been planned by the Staenberg Group, a real estate firm, to turn what is now the Chesterfield Mall into Downtown Chesterfield.

Downtown Chesterfield would include an urban core with high rise offices, hotels and retail uses, according to the Staenberg Group.

Ananthaa Madhavan, sophomore, supports the demolition of the mall.  When all the stores were closed, he said, issues would have arisen with the mall if it stayed in its current state.

“I feel like a lot of people could do stuff in it and they are gonna need security there, like some basic level of security to prevent it becoming a hideout for criminals,” Madhavan said.

Vismaya Vinod, senior, said the mall is iconic but has slowly died in recent years. 

An aspect of this mall’s deterioration could’ve been the COVID pandemic, Vinod said.

“During COVID, people had so much reliance on online shopping. It’s kinda just become the norm now so people don’t really go in person to stores anymore,” Vinod said.

Vinod said this reliance on online shopping could be a contributor to why Chesterfield Mall isn’t what it used to be.

“People don’t really go to that mall as they used to,” Vinod said. “Chesterfield Mall has lost its old-time essence where you can just go and hang out with friends.” 

Alexander Nelle, history teacher, has a long history with the mall.

“When I was in college I used to work at the YMCA across the street from there so I would go over there sometimes for lunch and do some quick shopping,” Nelle said.

Nelle said that mall culture used to be much different.

“Growing up, that’s how we always did our shopping when we needed to buy from several places,” Nelle said.

Nelle said that although malls like the Chesterfield Mall were important, things changed with time.

“You could tell over time that the number of people shopping there was declining, ” Nelle said.

According to NPR, 78% of people prefer online shopping because of limited queues, and according to Coresight research, between 2017 and 2023 there were 1,100 to 1,200 department store closures.

Nelle said that the demolition of the mall may be positive.

“It will be different, but it could be a sign of progress if they are able to build what they want to and it’s successful then it’ll help out the city,” Nelle said.

This story was originally published on Marquette Messenger on October 9, 2024.