urbanSTL

I went there yesterday for the first time and was blown away. It will be a catalyst for development. In fact, one Cardinals official commented that they within 6 months they'll announce a high-rise in right-centerfield.

Now, is that an opinion wrapped in premature ejaculation, maybe...but just passing along the statement...

If thats true then that will definitely get the fat lading singing ... I truly feel BPV has all the makings of a great destination something like if the Bottle District ever gets materialized.. You have the couples neighborhood along with the beginnings of a new possible neighborhood starting as in BPV.. Do you think St.Louis could still get a Cabo Wabo as originally planned for Bottle District?

yep..and the tower will be in right center....

Maybe someone who has been there can answer this: There isn't really a Ted Drewe's at Ballpark Village is there? They announced one at some point. Has anything materialized from that?

I went there yesterday for the first time and was blown away. It will be a catalyst for development. In fact, one Cardinals official commented that they within 6 months they'll announce a high-rise in right-centerfield.

Now, is that an opinion wrapped in premature ejaculation, maybe...but just passing along the statement...

I'm still confused. A high-rise as part of BPV? Because that would put it in dead center. Right center is Tums which would imply a building would have to come down.

I don't give a dead moose's last sh-t which exact spot they build a residential tower on, I just want them to build it! Seeing the construction of BPV on TV must be impressive to baseball fanatics in other cities. They wish they had it. While we might take phase I for granted, I think BPV will start to resemble something pretty awesome when its first high-rise goes up. When it's all done, it will surely be one of the best destinations in the region. I would love to see the Bottle District start to go up in the coming years too, perhaps whenever most the vacant buildings and at least one BPV Tower and Drury Tower are finished. Then we can see how much demand there is for NEW residential construction Downtown after that. With the potential streetcar, I believe there will be quite a lot of demand circa 2020.

^^^^The Busch II Infield is where the Ted Drewes signs are located. I believe that is where frozen custard will eventually be sold.

Is it going to be a real Ted Drewe's or is it just going to sell the same pre-packaged ice cream cups I can get at Imo's or the grocery store? Those aren't as good as the real thing.

I'm not sure yet. I'll report back once I get more information. I'm hoping for the real thing, too, but having the pre-packaged stuff is better than nothing at all.

From what i heard its suppose to be their 3rd location meaning it will be a real Ted Drew's but will only operate during the baseball season...

Well that's a boner killer! So I could only go there during baseball season and it will be empty space the other 5 months of the year?

^ The main difference is obviously demand and demographics. San Diego is a fast growing, diverse, young region, St. Louis is pretty much the exact opposite.

With that said, St. Louis is much different than many cities with a new found urban identity. San Diego is as urban, dense, and big as its ever been, St. Louis isn't. We have talked about this time and time again. Downtown St. Louis is seeing rapid residential growth, but how many midsized cities have a late 19th/early 20th century warehouse district the stretches from the river to Grand Ave. I hate to keep saying this, but downtown will likely not see much new construction until most if not all of the remaining buildings are rehabilitated. Then we will probably have a new construction boom that will put a lot of cities to shame.

BPV isn't unique to us, but the #1 NL ever team is! It's cool theirs is getting a high-line, but we're getting the Iron Horse Trestle AND Midtown Trestle. It's hard to say how tall our first BPV high-rise will be or how expensive it will be to live there, but in about 2016-ish, seeing the cranes for that, Drury Tower, and maybe even one or two other towers will really change people's perceptions of what's happening in St. Louis.

I agree with most of goat314 we have so many historic buildings that are still in need of attention like the old jefferson hotel etc but i do think BPV will be much better than San Diego's they had a head start before us if the economy didn't tank i think things would be very different most if not all the vacant buildings would be rehabbed and filled and there be quite a few cranes scattered around downtown besides the New Busch is rated in the top 5 best ballparks in the country and i truly believe once BVP is built we'll have the number 1 best ballpark yes over PNC which is beautiful but St.Louis doesn't have to have the dominating skyline that Pittsburgh has to be number 1. I remember last year while watching MLB network every time while they aired or before they go to commercial they would have the New Busch and the St.Louis skyline in the background tells you a lot about our ballpark..... I also think they'll build a pretty sleek residential tower i'll say between 3-500' and the a Office tower of 550' If the Drury tower happens it would be about 3-400' St.Louis doesn't need one dominating tall tower to have a beautiful skyline if we did we look like OKC with that tall 975' tower that looks out of place ...

Gateway City wrote:Well that's a boner killer! So I could only go there during baseball season and it will be empty space the other 5 months of the year?

Just think of it as keeping it authentic. btw, TD has real class.... I didn't know till recently that he gives solid scholarships to his young workers.

roger wyoming II wrote:

goat314 wrote: I hate to keep saying this, but downtown will likely not see much new construction until most if not all of the remaining buildings are rehabilitated. Then we will probably have a new construction boom that will put a lot of cities to shame.

I don't really agree with this. If developers believe there is enough demand to move forward, new towers will arise... simple as that. In fact, there may be an incentive to move faster than slower if there is a believe that a rehabbed Jefferson Arms and Butler Bros. buildings etc. and other towers in the Central Corridor would bring competitive units onto the market.

The other thing about the BPV and Drury properties is that they have terrific locations.... one associated with a premier sports brand that has multi-millionaires expressing interest in second homes and the other at the foot of the Wash U scene and Arch.

I actually don't think Jefferson Arms and Butler Bros will be competitive (price wise) to new construction. There is very little new construction coming online that would be affordable to a recent college grad, without having a roommate. Everything seems to be geared more towards luxury. I've said it before on this forum, plenty of young people (with degrees) want to move to downtown or midtown but many of them are priced out. If you just graduated from college making $30,000/yr, why would you pay $1000 for a one bedroom apartment, when you can get an apartment just as nice for $600 in the county. I'm sorry, the city just doesn't have the desirability of New York, San Francisco, Chicago etc, not even Denver or Seattle yet. A lot of these prices are overinflated, I'd hate to see what they will be in 10-20 years.

goat314 wrote:

roger wyoming II wrote:

goat314 wrote: I hate to keep saying this, but downtown will likely not see much new construction until most if not all of the remaining buildings are rehabilitated. Then we will probably have a new construction boom that will put a lot of cities to shame.

I don't really agree with this. If developers believe there is enough demand to move forward, new towers will arise... simple as that. In fact, there may be an incentive to move faster than slower if there is a believe that a rehabbed Jefferson Arms and Butler Bros. buildings etc. and other towers in the Central Corridor would bring competitive units onto the market.

The other thing about the BPV and Drury properties is that they have terrific locations.... one associated with a premier sports brand that has multi-millionaires expressing interest in second homes and the other at the foot of the Wash U scene and Arch.

I actually don't think Jefferson Arms and Butler Bros will be competitive (price wise) to new construction. There is very little new construction coming online that would be affordable to a recent college grad, without having a roommate. Everything seems to be geared more towards luxury. I've said it before on this forum, plenty of young people (with degrees) want to move to downtown or midtown but many of them are priced out. If you just graduated from college making $30,000/yr, why would you pay $1000 for a one bedroom apartment, when you can get an apartment just as nice for $600 in the county. I'm sorry, the city just doesn't have the desirability of New York, San Francisco, Chicago etc, not even Denver or Seattle yet. A lot of these prices are overinflated, I'd hate to see what they will be in 10-20 years.

I've never met anyone making $30,000/year fresh out of college. Unless you don't go to college and instead get a job and keep it for a long time until you're making decent money, there aren't many 22 year olds who are that rich. Hence why we have so many people in their mid-20's living with their parents and working at Starbucks even though they just spent 4 years on getting a degree - frequently a legit degree, not even a worthless one. Now they're $70,000+ in the can and still have the same job they had in high school.

And then they want to move to an urban setting but can't afford it.

Even in St. Louis.

The wealthiest, happiest 20-somethings I know are the ones who never went to college. They saved up their money, worked the same job for a long time, and have apartments (or in some cases even own houses) here in St. Louis and are living it up. They don't have all those student loans to worry about and, after not going to school full-time for 4 years they have worked thousands of more hours at their job that someone who did attend college. There's a very good reason college attendance rates are dropping so fast (more than 5% lower in 2013 than in 2011). I wouldn't be surprised if in ten years most small and mid-sized colleges started closing. This isn't Ireland where college is free!

That sort of contradicts my hope and desire that more colleges will expand their Downtown presence. SLU just built SLU Law and Webster will expand into the Arcade, which is awesome. Hopefully those colleges will never go under. That would be terrible for St. Louis. If anything, I think we're kind of banking more on college expansions than on corporate ones here! Edward Jones isn't planning to build Downtown anytime soon, but that new Dental School in Lafayette Square will bring a bunch more to the Downtown area in the very near future. Colleges are what will bring people to the neighborhood and I hope Wash-U builds something Downtown before too long as well. Then there will really be school and student tenants for all the proposed construction Downtown such as Drury Tower and BPV!

If BPV could lure a college presence there, it would install a ton of students and staff right in BPV 5 days a week, including when it's not even baseball season, especially if student housing (something actually affordable such as the Arcade...) were included in the deal. Imagine 10 floors of Wash-U and/or another college campus with a few more floors of student housing on top!