urbanSTL

I believe the One Center parking garage was on the Missouri Finance Development Boards agenda for yesterday's meeting. Haven't seen any reports out of St. Louis Business Journal or Building Blocks on the PD's website. Curious if anybody has any information?

In my mind, getting ground level retail going and some occupancy of the office tower is a good move. Especially if skybridge comes down, Embassy Suites with some more housing units, rental or condo, gets started on this spring, and a main entrance off Washington Ave. If above space above ground level retainl can be converted one way it can always be converted to a different use in the future.

janit0r wrote:This morning I saw a public notice posted near the Convention Metro re: installation of an illuminated sign at 600 Washington. Think it's office tower/garage or Metro related?

Noticed the Lewis Rice Sign on the Tower tonight... First time I had seen it.

^Yep. They're starting to move in next week. Their space looks fantastic. They've got the big barrel vault at the top, too.

I still hate the parking garage portion of this plan, but I look forward to seeing the transformation of St. Louis Centre into 600 Washington take place. This rather moribund section of downtown, which used to be teeming with retail establishments, needs a makeover ASAP.

With the mall itself being converted to parking, I'd really like to see the first floor of the ORIGINAL St. Louis Centre garage (the former Woolworth's) restored to retail space again. It would restore a little balance to the area.

I agree. Walking along Washington there and looking through the windows into what should be a retail space and seeing a parking garage is just weird.

DeBaliviere wrote:With the mall itself being converted to parking, I'd really like to see the first floor of the ORIGINAL St. Louis Centre garage (the former Woolworth's) restored to retail space again. It would restore a little balance to the area.

That should have never been approved in my opinion. I'd rather look at another vacant retail space than the ground floor parking. In its present state it really limits the potential of the area surrounding Macy's, although it's far from the only parcel in the area that needs help. Also, I remember shopping at that Woolworth's, and the one across the street that was leveled for St. Louis Centre. I miss the days of having more than one place to go in that area, so a makeover can't happen fast enough, and I hope Macy's makeover is a good one as well.

Not that I think this will happen, but it would be nice for the original STL Centre garage demolished, and then on the site a new residential mid-rise with ground floor retail, that would certainly help to offset the loss of the concord project.

PeterXCV wrote:Not that I think this will happen, but it would be nice for the original STL Centre garage demolished, and then on the site a new residential mid-rise with ground floor retail, that would certainly help to offset the loss of the concord project.

I really wish that could happen. Pyramid going bust is perhaps the greatest disappointment in downtown over the last decade with the exception of Ballpark Village. So many gains were made in so many areas, but the unfulfilled promises of a renovated Arcade Building and Mercantile Exchange were major setbacks in what was otherwise a pretty good decade for downtown overall.

There were HVAC crews parked in front of STL Centre at 7th and Washington when I walked by. Hopefully this is an early sign that work is underway on the mall, although they could have been doing work in One City Centre.

Went to the first official event at Lewis Rice's new office at 600 Washington. It is absolutely beautiful. Very modern and open, and full of glass. Also, I never realized that the 25th floor has a glass atrium and patio. They have turned it into a really awesome event space.

Also, lots of work appears to be happening on the St. Louis Centre portion with a major piece of the glass canopy removed at 6th and Washington. Let's hope that that bridge on Washington comes down soon!

^Yeah, the Lewis Rice space is incredible. It will undoubtedly be featured in several interior design write-ups. Top shelf all the way.

Does anyone have any pictures of that, it sounds great. I would love to see it.

Framer wrote:^Yeah, the Lewis Rice space is incredible. It will undoubtedly be featured in several interior design write-ups. Top shelf all the way.

They really did a fantastic job. One of the coolest offices I've seen in STL.

Hopefully more firms will want to join them in One City Centre.

Per the BJ - Financing closed today. And, wait for it, 600+ of the 800 parking spots are already pre-leased!


http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ily76.html

I don't care how they spin it but I think this project is a huge missed opportunity. I know I have said this before but I can't stop complaining about it.

While far from ideal, consider that repositioning the mall as a parking garage has had the positive effects:

1. Allowed the tower above to be rehabbed due to onsite parking and kept a large firm downtown. Also providing more decent Class-A office space.
2. Provided parking for a large law firm that could have moved to Clayton.
3. Removing the largest eyesore from downtown and in it's place providing 100,000 sq. ft. of ground-level retail. (that is a huge amount FYI - I wouldn't expect it to be leased quickly)
4. Providing hope for the removal of the Washington Ave. skybridge by fall.

The fact is, land values just aren't high enough downtown and there is not enough public transportation infrastructure to discourage parking garages yet. Hopefully some day we will reach that, but in the meantime we need to find ways to fill and build our downtown to reach that point.

The article said:

Backers of the $37.5 million transformation of the vacant St. Louis Centre mall downtown closed on financing Friday, and construction on a new parking garage will be completed this FALL.

No way it will be done that quickly, right?

Alex Ihnen wrote:

Downtown2007 wrote:I don't care how they spin it but I think this project is a huge missed opportunity. I know I have said this before but I can't stop complaining about it.

But with a possible 100,000 sq ft of retail and the parking lot basically leased, what's not to like? Whether there is too much parking downtown or not, I guess some didn't think it was in the right place.

Because we have failed to jump at the opportunity to create more density to this portion of downtown. Instead of focusing on a long term solution like adding residential or office space we opted for a short term solution resulting in a parking garage without considering that there is already plenty of parking available and a metrolink station is right across the street. Seriously, a parking garage next to a metro station? We might as well advertise it as a park and ride.

We are also adding another 100,000 sqft in retail space despite the fact we cannot fill what we have now. Glut in parking spaces and a glut in retail spaces without adding people. How is that sustanable?

We completely settled for a sort term solution instead of taking the time to get it right and focus on the longer term.

It doesn't even feel like a short term solution.

I agree, without adding any people to the downtown scene, I just don't see how that retail space is going to be filled.

I imagine it will be a bunch of lunch-time hours only restaurants with a constantly changing cast of characters. And how much of that do we already have DT?

Granted, it would be nice to walk around that area and not feel like you're walking into a dead zone, but....I don't know. A parking garage seems like a huge missed opportunity, esp. since there's one across the street.

Even a parking garage with some residential plopped on top of it would be nice, anything to get people into that area.

I'm not nessicarliy against a parking garage, but we'll now have 2 blocks of contiguous parking garages, maybe 3 if you count the FED's garage on Broadway @ Locust (I know it's not open to the public, but still...) in downtown's core.

The deal is this. It HAD to be a parking garage. It was part of the deal to keep Thompson Coburn there. The other alternative would be to build a parking garage on the US Bank plaza. Imagine how cold the area would be then. The parking garage keeps Thompson Coburn downtown and makes the office Tower a prime location downtown. You will also gets new retail in the area which will create a vibrant lunch area for the week. As for residence you will have the Laurel being built right there. Yes it sucks that a parking garage is right next to it but it is irrevelant to Thompson Coburn, and we couldn't lose them. Long term we should hope that this building makes the other parking garage obsolete and therefore a prime development area. As well as allows the mercantile library to be redeveloped.

Like you I wish that residential was booming and that we didn't have to give firms whatever they want to stay here but right now that is not the case. I have a lot of faith but the first step is filling up any and all vacant buildings. Lets gets the Alexa, Jeffeson Arms, Arcade, Ballpark Willage going. Lets be proud about the investment and redevelopment of the old crappy mall, the Laurel, the arch grounds, park pacific, and the robert tower. Just keep moving forward.