urbanSTL

Moorlander wrote:developers and financing in place to begin a $220 million overhaul after a three-year delay. On tap is a movie theater, up to 100,000 square feet of retail space, 750 parking spaces, 205 apartments, an Embassy Suites hotel and several new office tenants, including law firm Lewis, Rice & Fingersh and accounting firm LarsonAllen.



http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory1.html

Movie theater! YES YES YES YES. I know, ridiculous, but that's very exciting for me.



...now if someone would open the one at Union Station we'd be in business.



I'm not as negative on this entire development as I was. If this is all really going to happen, that's great.

The movie theater in that location has been planned for a long time. Glad the project is back on.

The problem with converting a parking garage is that the designs don't usually work for conversion due to short ceilings or angled floors. In the case of St. Louis Centre, I think a garage as one component is OK. Certainly, the current plan is not quite as exciting as the original plan, but in general it is OK. We need to see some renderings and layout plans.

Doug wrote:^How is the garage component OK?

I'm like you- doubtful- at least until I see some renderings.



This is the Show-Me State after all, right?

One thing that makes the garage component OK is the fact that it is helping to get this project moving again.

It will be interesting to see what type of retail they are looking to put in these spots. I know when Mercantile Exchange was full throttle, the hopes (at least mine) were around getting some good local/national stores...I hope we can get some quality retail in this area that somewhat resembles what they were planning to do with Mercantile Exchange. I'm also hoping the development continues South on Broadway...there are a couple great and abondoned buildings that are prime for rehab and I'm sick of looking at cracked out buildings outside my living room window!

Good article in this morning's P-D:



Link

I am beginning to think it's time for stltoday to remove the comments portion of it's website. Mindless drawl is just taking up their bandwidth. It's seriously like listening in to a creative writing session for character dialogue in the movie "Idiocracy."

^ Or they could do what CNN does. Real names and faces -> Accountability -> More civil behavior

The PD published a rendering of this development on their Building Blocks blog this afternoon:







For more information, go to http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/buildi ... is-centre/

Sorry for the double post!

Could be a lot worse than that. Nothing groundbreaking, but decent enough. What really disappoints me is the sidewalk will still be covered. I know the columns are structural, but I really wish they were getting tucked back into the proper building line.

MattnSTL wrote:Could be a lot worse than that. Nothing groundbreaking, but decent enough. What really disappoints me is the sidewalk will still be covered. I know the columns are structural, but I really wish they were getting tucked back into the proper building line.

True. The Washington side will be much improved though. It looks like the entry at 7th Street will be built out toward the sidewalk, which will definitely be better.

So..... I have not seen any specifics, so will ask. Has all the financing been put in place, or is this still contingent on that (aka...is this just a pipe dream right now)?

JMedwick wrote:You know Matt, some street narrowing could provide an expanded sidewalk with non-covered strolling space.

I considered that, but it doesn't seem like it is going to happen. I would like to see 2 way traffic along 7th.

RENDERINGS!!!!!!!!!!!



This look is very new to St. Louis. I would like to see more advertising in downtown. As long as its done in a tasteful way.

Finally, we've got a rendering! That took long enough. I was beginning to think the renderings were guarded more carefully than Dick Cheney's whereabouts between 2001 and 2008.



Overall it looks better than I expected. I could really do without the "Park" sign, since I think the ramps are going to make that one pretty obvious just as they are pretty obvious on at least one-third of the structures in downtown. And I hope the glass is heavily tinted to block the view of the cars inside as much as possible.



What's still missing is anything resembling a timeline, or any firm commitments for what will go in the space. Obviously I didn't expect the latter news for some time now, but in today's article the movie theater "might" be part of the plan. So even that is not a sure thing.



Once again, we are settling for less. I am trying really hard to be positive about this- hopefully the developer will do a far better job of attracting retailers to the ground floor than many developers downtown have done so far. And despite the fact that chain retailers and restaurants as a group have taken a serious beating around here lately, I think this is the perfect spot for a concentration of chains, and their presence should help Macy's as well.

Would you rather have that above, or what's currently there?



I for one am ok with it for sure. Especially if they get good tenants!