People go fast down that road and one of the southbound lanes just ends with no warning going past the project. Nobody is prepared for it and more often than not force merge themselves over with no regard for anybody else
Amazing how careless people are with cars given how expensive they are these days.
The road paint and road signs are an absolute sh*t show in this area. People going straight in turn lanes, forcing their way in from turn lanes, 4 lanes in a road that only has 3 lane options past the light. Its a joke. City needs to repaint the lane directions asap. I might as well do it myself at this point.
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Ive walked by there many times over the last 2 years and i cannot ever remember seeing anything from the outside that opens up as a retail space
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Saw a posted sign walking by that was for a March hearing for a Big Hen Brewing. Anyone know more?
Edited... no summer patio was indicated on the sign.
Edited... no summer patio was indicated on the sign.
StlToday - Complaints dog Lux Living at its newest St. Louis apartment building
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/bus ... 8150f.html
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/bus ... 8150f.html
Absolutely lovely company, headed by the best people in the world.
We should totally allow them to replicate their resounding success on south Kingshighway. Whatever they need, lets get it to them. We should feel lucky they are willing to replicate their business model in more areas of our city.
We should totally allow them to replicate their resounding success on south Kingshighway. Whatever they need, lets get it to them. We should feel lucky they are willing to replicate their business model in more areas of our city.
^I think some of the more extreme YIMBYs on this forum would agree with this still, though they're too embarrassed to post it.
Opinions will likely differ by age. I have friends who live at Lux apartments and like it. They have good experiences and bad experiences, just as any renter would. The buildings are still offering a housing type that young people are driven to, and the amenities are a huge selling point. Beyond SoHo, the Chelsea, Tribeca, and Hudson buildings have all added hundreds of residents within a mile radius of the Forest Park DB metrolink station and turned vacant lots into long-term revenue for the city.
That said, I've worked for two architecture/development firms now that have had bad experiences with Lux. The overall consensus is that they aren't ethical. They bait and switch contractors, and as we've seen, management of their new arrivals has been poor. (And personally, yes, they are not nice).
The "preying" on out-of-town residents is dramatic and not helpful. Lux aren't unique developers.
What could change is that market demand and resident experience plummets leading Lux to outsource its management operations or sell off their building stock. The city has blocked its most recent proposal for new construction on Kingshighway... Would love to hear more from Chris Stritzel and what his thoughts are on improving their operations since he worked there. (Is it legislation from the city? Will it take market demand? Lawsuits)?
At any rate, St. Louis should not be rooting for its investors to fail.
That said, I've worked for two architecture/development firms now that have had bad experiences with Lux. The overall consensus is that they aren't ethical. They bait and switch contractors, and as we've seen, management of their new arrivals has been poor. (And personally, yes, they are not nice).
The "preying" on out-of-town residents is dramatic and not helpful. Lux aren't unique developers.
What could change is that market demand and resident experience plummets leading Lux to outsource its management operations or sell off their building stock. The city has blocked its most recent proposal for new construction on Kingshighway... Would love to hear more from Chris Stritzel and what his thoughts are on improving their operations since he worked there. (Is it legislation from the city? Will it take market demand? Lawsuits)?
At any rate, St. Louis should not be rooting for its investors to fail.
I'm young (<30 years old) and think Lux Living has hurt our city much more than it has helped. They're not just another developer, they bought numerous historic apartment buildings in the CWE that used to be nice places to live and now are known as notoriously awful places to rent. I sure hope they sell off their building stock so their tenants can get something better.
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The Tribeca building is an interesting case study here. It was built and originally run by Lux but is now operated by a different company. The property manager actually runs both Tribeca and Steelyard and splits his time.
I think day to day operations at Tribeca have improved since the Lux days, but there are certainly still issues that impact the neighborhood. Trash surrounding the property and security concerns are still major issues. The building was certainly constructed cheaply and we are seeing the ramifications of that today. I don’t see any of these buildings aging well.
I think the concerns brought up regarding Lux as a developer are valid, and I think we have some of the same problems, regardless of the operating company at many of these recently built apartment complexes.
I think day to day operations at Tribeca have improved since the Lux days, but there are certainly still issues that impact the neighborhood. Trash surrounding the property and security concerns are still major issues. The building was certainly constructed cheaply and we are seeing the ramifications of that today. I don’t see any of these buildings aging well.
I think the concerns brought up regarding Lux as a developer are valid, and I think we have some of the same problems, regardless of the operating company at many of these recently built apartment complexes.
Simply, they need to outsource construction and property management. They're set to do this with their 14th andWyandotte tower in Kansas City where Vic Alston has been quoted as saying that it'll be built by a local, big construction firm (likely JE Dunn) and will be leased and managed by Greystar. This is a much better move than building and managing in-house. The 14th and Wyandotte model should be applied across their new portfolio since bigger construction companies won't build a junk product as that would come back to them and reflect poorly and a 3rd party manager, especially one like Greystar, will be sure to respond to resident concerns in a timely manner.dylank wrote: ↑Aug 14, 2023What could change is that market demand and resident experience plummets leading Lux to outsource its management operations or sell off their building stock. The city has blocked its most recent proposal for new construction on Kingshighway... Would love to hear more from Chris Stritzel and what his thoughts are on improving their operations since he worked there. (Is it legislation from the city? Will it take market demand? Lawsuits)?
Getting the construction and management side of things overhauled and set on the right track would be a positive for them in the longterm since they can just focus on developing and not building and managing.
As for architects, I feel bad for having recommended RemigerDesign and HOK during my time there. But together, great products were created and I thought it was fun to have them on a project. From what I know, but haven't witnessed, payments to architects weren't always paid. Sometimes architects would be swapped out after schematic approval (like 8800 Watson lost Hoefer Welker in favor of VE Design Group). Clearly none of this is the architecture firms fault. It all falls back on Lux and that's one bad habit that they need to break since architects talk. And if you do one wrong, it's going to spread pretty quickly to others and you'll be blacklisted (I've heard from three firms that Lux is on the "blacklist" of potential clients based on how Lux has conducted themselves with other architects in the past).
If you want to hear something about SoHo, I've been told that the stack of apartments above the garage entrance isn't suitable for occupancy and are currently in an unfitted state. Supposedly, if you threw a brick at the wall, it would go through it because interior work hasn't been done yet. That end of the occupied hallways that lead to the unfinished areas are blocked off by super thin drywall that could be busted through if someone fell into it.
Amenities that haven't been delivered are a result of the final "tower" of apartments being built just north of the garage entrance. That was to be built with steel to hold a rooftop pool and deck, yet clearly that hasn't been done yet. There's a list of other things that I've been told about this property and decisions made during construction that make me cringe a bit. Wasting money on decorations that took away from the structural budget, cutting corners to deliver "phases" of opening despite being behind schedule multiple times, parking garage issues, etc.
These issues plague SoHo and will likely plague the McKenzie as well.
I know Lux won't do it, but after this mess, the McKenzie mess, and controversies at Hudson, Chelsea, Tribeca, etc, it's time for them to give up building and managing the properties themselves. Turn it over to a 3rd party. Yes, it'll cost more, but the product will be better and lead to happier residents.
Oh, and I would advise them to cut out the publicly accessible pool parties. Residents don't pay top dollar to have strangers wander in and get drunk in the pool lounge that they don't pay for. I'd also advise them to sell off as many of their oldest properties as they can and put that money back into paying down debt and getting those 3rd party companies involved. The best time to have done this was 2-3 years ago. Second best time is now. Having constant ***** ups and no plan to fix those ***** ups made them get to the reputation they have now.
Amenities that haven't been delivered are a result of the final "tower" of apartments being built just north of the garage entrance. That was to be built with steel to hold a rooftop pool and deck, yet clearly that hasn't been done yet. There's a list of other things that I've been told about this property and decisions made during construction that make me cringe a bit. Wasting money on decorations that took away from the structural budget, cutting corners to deliver "phases" of opening despite being behind schedule multiple times, parking garage issues, etc.
These issues plague SoHo and will likely plague the McKenzie as well.
I know Lux won't do it, but after this mess, the McKenzie mess, and controversies at Hudson, Chelsea, Tribeca, etc, it's time for them to give up building and managing the properties themselves. Turn it over to a 3rd party. Yes, it'll cost more, but the product will be better and lead to happier residents.
Oh, and I would advise them to cut out the publicly accessible pool parties. Residents don't pay top dollar to have strangers wander in and get drunk in the pool lounge that they don't pay for. I'd also advise them to sell off as many of their oldest properties as they can and put that money back into paying down debt and getting those 3rd party companies involved. The best time to have done this was 2-3 years ago. Second best time is now. Having constant ***** ups and no plan to fix those ***** ups made them get to the reputation they have now.
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The Google reviews for the Soho are just brutal wow.
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I hope the building across the street ends up being built -- and I hope that it's going to be a much better quality that what we got from LuxLiving with Soho.
I saw on Reddit a few weeks back that the Jimmy John's across Broadway is closed. Some posters over there were suspecting that more property is being bought for more buildings. Not sure how true that is, though.
I saw on Reddit a few weeks back that the Jimmy John's across Broadway is closed. Some posters over there were suspecting that more property is being bought for more buildings. Not sure how true that is, though.
SMH. Where is my tiny violin?
Stl Mag - TikToker battles defamation suit filed by notorious St. Louis developers
https://www.stlmag.com/news/tiktok-libe ... ty-alston/
Stl Mag - TikToker battles defamation suit filed by notorious St. Louis developers
https://www.stlmag.com/news/tiktok-libe ... ty-alston/
Also "TikToker" lol
Is it odd to you almost all the Google reviews on the SoHo page are now very recent?
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk