Park Pacific (aka Missouri Pacific bldg) - 210 N. 13th Street

moorlander · PostOct 03, 2008#3612008-10-03T17:21+00:00

Project: Park Pacific

$120 million, Downtown

Developer: The Lawrence Group

Status: Condos nixed. Plans call for a parking garage, apartments and office space to open mid-2009.

What They’re Saying:

Financing in place but developer Steve Smith declined to name lenders: “There’s less money to go around. You have to have super strong deals and good relationships with lenders to get the loans.”

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... =printable

zink · PostOct 16, 2008#3622008-10-16T18:47+00:00

Walked by the building last Monday. They were going full speed ahead in gutting the inside.

Good news which I am not sure if people know, is that the accounting firm LarsonAllen has already planned to move into the Park Pacific and is planning to lease out 25,000 sq ft. They will be moving from their current 16,000 sqft location in Town and Country to downtown! Nice!

(Info from the Latest STL Business Journal)

debaliviere · PostOct 16, 2008#3632008-10-16T18:50+00:00

zink wrote:Walked by the building last Monday. They were going full speed ahead in gutting the inside.

Good news which I am not sure if people know, is that the accounting firm LarsonAllen has already planned to move into the Park Pacific and is planning to lease out 25,000 sq ft. They will be moving from their current 16,000 sqft location in Town and Country to downtown! Nice!

(Info from the Latest STL Business Journal)

And, Larson Allen just purchased a 25-person firm based in Maryland Heights, so it's like getting two businesses to move downtown!

stldtfan · PostOct 16, 2008#3642008-10-16T19:26+00:00

Now THAT is awesome. We have steadily lost a lot of high value business to West County or Clayton in the past. DT is coming back

publiceye · PostOct 16, 2008#3652008-10-16T20:27+00:00

Here's the May 2007 announcement of this move in MayorSlay.com. It lets you see that downtown's strongest ambassadors are often the businesses who are already here:

http://www.mayorslay.com/desk/display.asp?deskID=690

moorlander · PostOct 30, 2008#3662008-10-30T12:19+00:00

BAD BREAKS: Steve Smith, president of the Lawrence Group, had two bad breaks within a week's time.

The 52-year-old executive, who also is an off-road motorcycle racer, broke his collarbone Sunday in a race in Thayer, Mo. Then, he had to break the news on Monday that the architectural design firm had to lay off nine employees and cut everybody's pay by 10 percent "for a maximum of three months."

"We have had a solid, profitable year through three quarters," Smith said. "But we don't want to lose it all in the last quarter.

"We have a solid backlog of work that will kick in next year, but we see a soft spot in the next three months, and we don't want to take significant losses."

The company employs 200 in the St. Louis area.

Smith said there were no layoffs in "network offices" in other locations. In fact, Smith said, the office here is lending people "from St. Louis to other offices."

Smith is ranked third in Missouri in the over-50 off-road division, and had trouble holding on to his Austrian-made KTM 250 Sunday.

He thinks he has a better handle on renovation of the old Union Pacific Building at 13th and Olive streets the Lawrence Group is helping develop. It is a $120 million, 23-story project, with Alberici doing the structural work.

"We'll be under construction in December," Smith said. "It will be 195 apartments, 90,000 square feet of office and retail space and a parking structure on an adjacent lot."

Smith said the financing is complex, with a $16 million equity partner, a lender for bridge financing for historic tax credits, a bridge lender for tax increment financing and a construction lender.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

threeonefour · PostOct 30, 2008#3672008-10-30T13:28+00:00

Ouch- in more ways than one!

Anyway, it's good to see the Park Pacific project moving forward- and with committed office tenants. I assume this parking structure is going to rise on the site where Cityside was supposed to be built? IMHO the design of it will either make or break the look of the overall project- hopefully much thought will be given to its design since it will face Tucker Boulevard.

the central scrutinizer · PostOct 30, 2008#3682008-10-30T14:55+00:00

ThreeOneFour wrote:Ouch- in more ways than one!

Anyway, it's good to see the Park Pacific project moving forward- and with committed office tenants. I assume this parking structure is going to rise on the site where Cityside was supposed to be built? IMHO the design of it will either make or break the look of the overall project- hopefully much thought will be given to its design since it will face Tucker Boulevard.

I would hope that maybe they would leave the City Side lot open. Plant some grass or something, and when the market inproves, they or someone else can build on it. I'd rather not have another parking garage right on Tucker.

I assume I'm remembering correctly, and the garage was sandwiched between City Side and the UP building?

metzgda · PostOct 30, 2008#3692008-10-30T16:40+00:00

Unfortunately I believe cityside was to be built above the parking structure so I would expect the parking structure to but up to Tucker. Hopefully the design will include street-level retail and a structure that doesn't scream "parking garage".

jlblues · PostOct 30, 2008#3702008-10-30T22:38+00:00

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:I would hope that maybe they would leave the City Side lot open. Plant some grass or something, and when the market inproves, they or someone else can build on it. I'd rather not have another parking garage right on Tucker.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:It's easy to say what should be done when you're spending someone else's money.

dredger · PostOct 30, 2008#3712008-10-30T22:44+00:00

For the minimal structural cost wouldn't it be beneficial for this developer to give themselves the option of building the Cityside tower at a later date. I understand the current design doesn't deviate much from the original.

innov8ion · PostOct 31, 2008#3722008-10-31T12:41+00:00

jlblues wrote:
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:I would hope that maybe they would leave the City Side lot open. Plant some grass or something, and when the market inproves, they or someone else can build on it. I'd rather not have another parking garage right on Tucker.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:It's easy to say what should be done when you're spending someone else's money.

They only say the latter when they disagree with the other's prescription. Otherwise, it's perfectly ok to do it.

the central scrutinizer · PostOct 31, 2008#3732008-10-31T13:58+00:00

innov8ion wrote:
jlblues wrote:
The Central Scrutinizer wrote:I would hope that maybe they would leave the City Side lot open. Plant some grass or something, and when the market inproves, they or someone else can build on it. I'd rather not have another parking garage right on Tucker.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:It's easy to say what should be done when you're spending someone else's money.

They only say the latter when they disagree with the other's prescription. Otherwise, it's perfectly ok to do it.

Of course the difference in this example is what I hope they would do, rather than what I insist they do.

This is one of the things that gives preservationists a bad name. A building sits empty and dilapidated for 20-30 years. Finally, someone buys it and wants to tear it down. The preservationist are outraged! "The developer should save that building and pour $10 million into it!" But a rational person asks, "If you wanted to save the building so badly, why didn't you buy it sometime in the past 30 years?"

One of my favorite charities is The Nature Conservancy. Instead of demanding someone do or not do something with their property, they simply buy it. Then they can do or not do whatever they want.

matt drops the h · PostOct 31, 2008#3742008-10-31T15:13+00:00

This is one of the things that gives preservationists a bad name. A building sits empty and dilapidated for 20-30 years. Finally, someone buys it and wants to tear it down. The preservationist are outraged! "The developer should save that building and pour $10 million into it!" But a rational person asks, "If you wanted to save the building so badly, why didn't you buy it sometime in the past 30 years?"

One of my favorite charities is The Nature Conservancy. Instead of demanding someone do or not do something with their property, they simply buy it. Then they can do or not do whatever they want.

I agree with you that this is the most effective preservation technique.

However, I disagree with your dismissal of the protests that arise when developers buy buildings to tear them down. Cities and their citizens have been able to determine land use and zoning for a long time. Private property owners do not always have the clear cut right just to tear a building down.

The real problem is not with preservationists’ buying properties, but with the general public opening up to local historic districts, which offer control over the district’s stock of buildings. There are far too many people who would like to see a certain important and threatened building be preserved, but would not support a local historic district due to the restrictions on their own activities with their homes and businesses.

jakektu · PostNov 21, 2008#3752008-11-21T19:33+00:00

The parking lot has been fenced off and ground has been broken.

Does anyone know what the scaled back design looks like?

stlouis270 · PostNov 22, 2008#3762008-11-22T09:32+00:00

^^^^^^^^^^^^

i guess

Moorlander wrote:Sweet Garage!

Rendering Source

MattnSTL · PostNov 22, 2008#3772008-11-22T17:59+00:00

I was told by one of their architects that that is not the final design, but I have not actually seen a different design to know what is different.

tb1000 · PostNov 23, 2008#3782008-11-23T17:56+00:00

Okay, have a parking deck but make the thing look like it's not a parking deck!! For the love, get some creativity involved so the city doesn't look like a highrise concrete maze of parking decks.

framer · PostNov 24, 2008#3792008-11-24T04:44+00:00

And this is on Tucker, what should be one of our grandest thoroughfares. Sad.

flopoerich · PostNov 24, 2008#3802008-11-24T05:25+00:00

TB1000 wrote:Okay, have a parking deck but make the thing look like it's not a parking deck!! For the love, get some creativity involved so the city doesn't look like a highrise concrete maze of parking decks.

EXACTLY!!! 2 or 3 times in the last 2 days I have driven by a garage, and not even known it was a garage!! That's how it should be... instead we have some of the UGLIEST parking garages around!

urbanpioneer · PostNov 24, 2008#3812008-11-24T05:31+00:00

I know Lawrence Group is hurting financially right now, but this is really disappointing. What happen to the nice modern building? Hopefully when the economy picks back up they can build above the garage and add an actual facade. If we're looking for a silver lining... at the very least there appears to be first floor commercial space.

The quality of the rending is disappointing too. Am I to believe the sun is setting in the north?

Plus, they just plopped a basic, bland, run of the mill parking garage into an old rendering

the central scrutinizer · PostNov 24, 2008#3822008-11-24T13:19+00:00

They added a girl on roller blades in the lower right hand corner. So the garage is already adding more street life.

brody · PostNov 24, 2008#3832008-11-24T21:18+00:00

Why? Why another parking garage? How many do we need?

vollum · PostNov 24, 2008#3842008-11-24T21:43+00:00

Well, if you are converting a large building to apartments which you hope to convert to condos some day, you would be wise to supply abundant and convenient parking. I continue to be amazed at the proportion of folks in our downtown condo/apartment building who have purchased two or three spaces. We find one car to be sufficient....But others obviously feel differently about the subject.

moorlander · PostNov 24, 2008#3852008-11-24T21:46+00:00

^ for some people autos are a mode of transportation. For others they are a hobby and/or form of entertainment and for others they are an extention of their ego. I know many people who have cars for work and cars for play.

Park Pacific (aka Missouri Pacific bldg) - 210 N. 13th Street

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