ST. LOUIS & CLAYTON | Project Rundown

[Arch City]

A suburban St. Louis Fiat dealership is planning to open a Fiat showroom in downtown St. Louis. While it's not a full dealership, hopefully this Fiat showroom storefront will help to increase pedestrian activity along Locust Street. This is the first car sales presence in downtown St. Louis in over a decade.

Read about the Fiat showroom's plans for this building here and here.

[Arch City]

Another old and empty building is renovated and brought back to life in downtown St. Louis.

The old Stix, Baer and Fuller department store building (last operated as a Dillard's) opened in downtown St. Louis on Washington Avenue last October 2011. It is a part of the newly formed Mercantile Exchange District (MX), which anchors Washington Avenue. A new 212-room Embassy Suites and The Laurel Apartments, with 205-units are located in the building. The opening of the National Blues Museum is planned for the building in 2013 or 2014.

Read more and see more photos here.

New retail such as a movie theater, an upscale Pi Pizzeria (see rendering) and a wine bar are already committed for the MX District. More retail is certain to come. Recently, St. Louis held one of its Soulard Mardi Gras parades on Washington Avenue - it is the only nighttime parade in downtown St. Louis.





















Photo Source

[goat314]

Wow! This building looks great. Cannot wait until other projects break ground. Mainly the Jefferson Arms and Chemical Building.

[Arch City]

• Video Link

Above time lapse video is from December 2011.

After nearly two years of Brownfield cleanup and restoration into new industrial and office uses, Chouteau Crossing, a $22 million redevelopment located on Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis' central industrial valley, is nearly complete. The former big behemoth eyesore has been renovated resulting in the alleviation of a big dead zone as well as a big stretch of decay on one of St. Louis' major east/west arteries. There are two buildings in the 130,000 square-foot industrial/office complex, which were the former homes to Missouri Boiler and Nooter Corporation. The project received help from Missouri Brownfield and Business Energy Investment tax credits. The site had been vacant for the last 13 years.

The developer, Green Street Properties of Clayton, Missouri, included environmentally friendly features in the development.

-Roof rain water collection/irrigation cistern system
-Solar voltaic panels
-Wind turbines,
-Geothermal systems
-Solar domestic hot water systems

Dyna Labs, Inc., a fast growing St. Louis-based biotech firm, will occupy 23,696 square feet of the 33,445 square foot Building #1 and Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 will occupy the full 96,023 square feet of Building #2. Dyna Labs, Inc.'s space is LEED Registered, tracking for Certified while the Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 building is LEED Registered, tracking for Platinum.

Read & See More:
Groundbreaking ceremony photos
Source #1
Source #2
Inc. 5000: Dyna Labs, Inc.

What a transformation! Here's how the site looked before the clean-up and redevelopment.

[Arch City]

There are urban farms all around St. Louis City, but this has be the most diversified urban farm concept to date - probably in the country.

FarmWorks-St. Louis, a $14-million urban farm, aquaponics facility and residential housing, is under construction on the North Riverfront Industrial area - just south of the New Mississippi River Bridge, which is also under construction.

FarmWorks-St. Louis is one of the latest urban farms to rise in inner city areas across America. The difference with this concept is the fish farm (aquaponics facility) and residential housing that will be a part of the project.

From the FarmWorks website:

"The urban farm component is modeled on innovative and successful urban agricultural programs in other cities. The farm at FarmWorks, which includes indoor and outdoor growing space, will provide a sustainable, highly efficient process for producing greenhouse-grown produce and tank-grown fish for commercial sale. A portion of the old warehouse will be transformed into a large greenhouse, featuring aquaponics, vertical growing, and vermiculture."

Other Reading
Source #1
Source #2
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Stamping Lofts
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Five questions with Dorothée Imbert
St. Louis Business Journal: Work begins on $9.8 million Stamping Lofts project

[Arch City]

CORTEX embarks on growth projects
BY TIM BRYANT
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Friday, February 3, 2012

CORTEX life-sciences campus' big expansion in the Central West End will include a public plaza and perhaps a new MetroLink station.

Final agreements on projects totaling $140 million should be reached by March with construction soon afterward, said Dennis Lower, president of CORTEX. The projects will double its office and lab space to about 800,000 square feet.

"It's all coming along in nice fashion," he said.

The work will represent the second phase of development at CORTEX, which stands for the Center of Research, Technology and Entrepreneurial Exchange. It is a nonprofit venture by area universities, BJC HealthCare and the Missouri Botanical Garden. The long-range goal is to turn 240 acres of small factories and warehouses into a bustling hub for medical research.

Its first phase, which includes a lab building on Forest Park Avenue and the headquarters of plant science firm Solae Corp., is almost fully occupied. CORTEX plans to develop labs and offices in a rehabbed industrial building and a new 200,000-square-foot building. Most of the space is already committed to BJC and Wexford Science and Technology - a Baltimore-based developer of science labs.

Wexford will rehab for 10 to 15 tenants a plant Western Electric built on Duncan Avenue in 1947 to produce telephones. BJC is designing a 200,000-square-foot building to be built at Boyle and Clayton avenues. June Fowler, BJC's vice president of communication, said construction will begin this year.
Lower said completion of the BJC building is scheduled for the summer of 2013 with the Wexford project to be ready that fall.

Read more: Source

[Arch City]

Here are a couple of videos pertaining to the MX (Mercantile Exchange District) that will anchor the eastern end of Washington Avenue along with LaClede's Landing (kind of sorta). Read a snippet here about the $250-million dollar project, which will include a 150-seat performance hall for the 6th Street Theater, three movie theaters, wine bar etc.

The build-out of the flagship Pi Pizzeria is under way.

• Video Link

And here's a video street tour - prepared by the MX District - via Google Street View, of the MX District's potential identifier signage area.

• Video Link

[Arch City]

Kingsland Walk is a $35-million mixed-use (residential / live-work / retail / commercial) development planned to break ground in 2012 and is adjacent to Metcalfe Park in suburban University City- in the Delmar Loop area. The project will feature abundant "green-screened" on-site parking, a community pool, and fitness center.

[Arch City]

Barnes-Jewish touts new outpatient center
BY BLYTHE BERNHARD
Thursday, March 8, 2012 12:05 am

Several outpatient clinics at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are set to open Tuesday along with administrative office space in a new 12-story building at Forest Park and Euclid avenues.

Construction on the $98.5 million Barnes-Jewish Center for Outpatient Health started in 2009.

Three of the floors will house the hospital's primary care, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, wound care and specialty care clinics, which were previously situated in older buildings on the Washington University medical school campus.

Specialists seeing patients in the building will include dermatologists, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, urologists, and ear, nose and throat doctors. Patients can receive biopsies and other minor surgical procedures and have X-rays taken in the new clinic space.

Most of the patients expected to visit the clinics will qualify for Medicaid, a government health insurance program for people who meet low-income requirements. The hospital's clinics host more than 90,000 such patient visits in an average year. (Source)

• Video Link

^ i just wish it weren't so ugly. their color "palette" (i.e. tan or beige or whatever that is) is pretty abominable.

[Arch City]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

^ i just wish it weren't so ugly. their color "palette" (i.e. tan or beige or whatever that is) is pretty abominable.

I don't think the color is bad at all. I feel that St. Louis needs brighter colors and a higher percentage of glass on its new buildings to offset all of the red brick.

I personally think design might be a little too simple and flat; and unfortunately it seeks to be uniform with all of the other newer buildings at the medical center......so in that respect....it is getting old. New, but uninteresting. New, but utilitarian. But as you see in the video.....all of the "older" people are very satisfied with it. I give it a "C".

However, if you look at Washington University's Danforth campus....it too is uniform with all of the new collegiate gothic architecture mixing with the old collegiate gothic. I guess Washington University likes to be consistent. I hope The Loop development is a lot more modern and avant-garde.

Originally Posted by Arch City

I don't think the color is bad at all. I feel that St. Louis needs brighter colors and a higher percentage of glass on its new buildings to offset all of the red brick.

I personally think design might be a little too simple and flat; and unfortunately it seeks to be uniform with all of the other newer buildings at the medical center......so in that respect....it is getting old. New, but uninteresting. New, but utilitarian. But as you see in the video.....all of the "older" people are very satisfied with it. I give it a "C".

However, if you look at Washington University's Danforth campus....it too is uniform with all of the new collegiate gothic architecture mixing with the old collegiate gothic. I guess Washington University likes to be consistent. I hope The Loop development is a lot more modern and avant-garde.

yeah, i do agree that STL could use some brighter colors. i guess i just don't like the particular color they've chosen to run with. i do like glass as well, but i like a balance between flat surfaces and decorated ones. too many modern buildings, IMHO, are comprised of large, flat, featureless surfaces that lack texture and detail, making them uninteresting (to me, anyway). so, agreed about the "simple and flat" part. at least the ground-level retail section is an improvement over that of the Ettrick building in terms of function (although i still think the Ettrick was a far cry more attractive). I don't mind uniform architecture (a la Wash. U.) so long as it's quality, and Wash. U's new construction recreates the materials, textures, details and decorations on the older gothic buildings quite convincingly i think.

[Arch City]

(See perspectives below)

Washington University investing $80 million to develop apartment complex on the Loop
March 8, 2012
Michelle Merlin | Editor-in-Chief | Student Life

Washington University is proposing an $80 million plan to build apartments with storefronts on the Delmar Loop and Eastgate Avenue.

The project is a culmination of years of research with Loop businesses indicating that the area could support more retail and residential development.

Members of Residential Life hope that the added apartments—expected to house around 550 students by the time the project is finished—will help congestion in the housing system, as well as create a new space for students to spend time.

“As undergraduate enrollment has increased slightly and is predicted to continue to do so, we’re trying to get ahead. This development is trying to meet the needs we’ll have in a couple years for students,” Associate Vice Chancellor for Students and Dean of Students Justin Carroll said.

There will be three new apartment buildings of 200 units, all a mix of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom spaces. Tentative plans for an underground parking garage are included, although the administration hopes that students choosing to live there will bike or walk to campus.

The first phase of the project is slated to start in January 2013, with occupancy starting in August 2014.

The plan is based on the results of two neighborhood studies, the Parkview Gardens Sustainability Plan and the Delmar Loop Area Retail Plan & Development Strategy, as well as an extensive Residential Life survey sent out a year ago.

The University also hopes to create a living space for students in which they can be more integrated into the community.

“We want to create a vibrant residential community for upperclassmen students that’s exciting, a destination and a place people want to go, so all the amenities need to be there to encourage that to take place” Carroll said.

The location is currently owned by Washington University and includes the U Terrace apartments—another off-campus housing complex owned by Residential Life that holds 56 students—and an adjacent empty lot.

“That site became very positive because we know that [University] City wants more density in their neighborhoods, and a retail study indicated that corner on is an important tooth to fill in on the pedestrian street,” Cheryl Adelstein, the University’s director of community relations and local government affairs, said.

The tentative plans include at least 20,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The University hired HR&A Advisors to start recruiting businesses to the area, including a grocery store, pharmacy and others.

(Source)

Other Reading:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Washington University plans $80 million Loop project
St. Louis Business Journal: Washington University plans $80 million Loop rehab project
Student Housing Business: Washington University Plans $80 Million Loop Project

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Here are different perspectives, but not the final renderings.


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[Arch City]

Drury Hotels have the green light from the Chesterfield planning commission to start construction of an eight-story 145-room Hyatt Place hotel, next to the existing Drury Plaza hotel.

Zoning passed in 2011 amended the requirements for the number of hotel rooms, and landscape requirements. Monday night, the planning commission unanimously passed the site plan.

According to the approved site plan, traffic will enter the new hotel off Chesterfield Center East. Parking for the two hotels and the restaurant will be shared. An expansion of the parking lot is planned.

Of the 24 existing trees, 11 of the larger ones will be moved or relocated. No other changes will be made to the landscaping. This meets all of Chesterfield's requirements.

There are two more approvals yet to do, according to Chesterfield senior planner Shawn Seymour. Both are at the staff level. One is improvement plans, which is grading, and the other one will be municipal zoning approval, which will allow them to get building permits.

Seymour said he doesn't know when they plan on breaking ground.

According to a St. Louis Business Business Journal article, the 1.05-acre site is valued at $1 million. It is owned by Drury, and was part of the plan when the initial 274-room Drury Plaza Hotel was built.

Read more here and here.

[Arch City]

$6.5-million project, at 400 Washington Avenue called Gallery 400 Apartments, will include 78 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments in an historic building near the MX District, which is under construction in phases. Read more here.

awesome. the more people living downtown the better. hopefully the other two soon-to-be-or-maybe-already-foreclosed-upon roberts-owned buildings on locust will follow shortly.

[Arch City]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

awesome. the more people living downtown the better. hopefully the other two soon-to-be-or-maybe-already-foreclosed-upon roberts-owned buildings on locust will follow shortly.

That's odd. I think you might be jumping the gun a bit. There are no foreclosures that are even imminent yet.

On top of that, they sold that building on Washington Avenue to the current developer. Additionally, they are trying to sell a few of their buildings on Locust St. where a new Hotel Indigo was supposed to go until the economy tanked. Those buildings are up for sale now. Read about it here.

Liens - for nonpayment of taxes - have been placed on hotels they own by the State of Missouri - but they have a while before foreclosure. All they owe is $212,000 on those, so I doubt foreclosure will take place. Missouri will shut them down temporarily until they pay though. Nonetheless, they are paying down tax debts according to recent articles.

Read here and here.

They owe the city taxes too, but I don't know if the city has even placed liens on the properties yet. The Roberts Brothers own too much real estate -especially hotels and broadcast entities - that they could sell off before foreclosures would happen.

ah, thanks for the correction and links. i was pretty much talking out of my butt - i thought i had skimmed something somewhere that mentioned some Roberts real estate in foreclosure. i've got nothing against them. it seems they're in over their heads lately, but i think they've been good for the city.

[RBB]

The Roberts Brothers seem to suffer from some sort of developer version of ADD - they're all like 'ooh, let's run a hotel downtown'. Then 'ooh, let's refurb a theater'. Then 'ooh ooh, new modern tower downtown, let's do that!'

In the meantime whatever they were working on before, finished or not, is left to rot and employees may or not be paid as they focus on the next shiny thing.

-RBB

[RBB]

Also: Bank of America Sues Roberts Brothers for $34M

The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges the Roberts brothers owe Bank of America $34.28 million in principal and $376,049 in interest on a loan made in 2007 connected to hotels in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Shreveport, La., Spartanburg, S.C. and Tampa.

-RBB