urbanSTL

From Friday's BJ:

Ballpark Village is almost certain to grow through development, possibly soon.

Martin of Cordish said interest has been “overwhelming” for potential office and residential developments at Ballpark Village, though he declined to provide specifics. The company is trying finalize a development timeline that makes sense, he said.

“We want to make that determination and get going,” Martin said.

moorlander wrote:From Friday's BJ:

Ballpark Village is almost certain to grow through development, possibly soon.

Martin of Cordish said interest has been “overwhelming” for potential office and residential developments at Ballpark Village, though he declined to provide specifics. The company is trying finalize a development timeline that makes sense, he said.

“We want to make that determination and get going,” Martin said.

Any link to share?

This isn't the BJ article, but an article in the P-D about a week ago had some comments from the same guy. They're vague, but they hint at wanting to move forward. He sounded particularly interested in residential.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 691a6.html

This might be the Business Journal article, but I don't have a subscription to read the meat of it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/prin ... inals.html

^that's the one

Downtown's Little Clayton? The sound if that is frightening.

I get a good chuckle on the play of words by the Cordish folks. I think they spin themselves dizzy. Overwhelming office and residential demand to me means that would have a shovel in the ground already.

roger wyoming II wrote:We've been down this road many a time, but hopefully something gets done sooner or later. I also hope the residential and/or office attracts more County clientele... I like to think of BPV developing into downtown's "Little Clayton" - offering a comfortable habitat for those who want a feel that is a little more safe and a lot more boring.

dredger wrote:I get a good chuckle on the play of words by the Cordish folks. I think they spin themselves dizzy. Overwhelming office and residential demand to me means that would have a shovel in the ground already.

Agreed on all fronts. I wish I "got a good chuckle" but generally just get tired of their superlatives and grandstanding. How long have they been rolling our soundbites like: "Martin of Cordish said interest has been “overwhelming” for potential office and residential developments at Ballpark Village." with little or no action to back them up. Other developers, I'm thinking of Lawrence Group & Spinnaker/Amos Harris, tout Downtown, but they do so with concrete investments, and even caveats and concerns, to back them up. Yes, Blues Museum took a long time, but it's happening. Yes, the Missouri Theater Building redevelopment seems to have slowed, but I have faith it's going to happen, because Lawrence Group only talks about projects when they have the goods to back them up. With Cordish it's all fluff and puffery, and maybe even dazzling renderings, but little substance or investment.

I haven't heard of any delays since the internal demo permit was issued (and didn't mean to suggest as much). But it seemed to come out of the gates pretty quick with the B.B. King's and television studio announcements, and then languished for a while. Hopefully it's getting up to speed with internal demo and will start reno soon.

Downtown STL would definitely benefit from a mini-Clayton. It's not my bag, either, but you need to shatter this idea that it's an unsafe area still struggling to stave off decline--and you need to create a tax-paying and money-spending population base.

BPV should be breaking ground tomorrow with at least a hotel, because, as I've stated in other threads, it's pretty much a sure thing that there's a shortage of hotel rooms in Downtown with like three of them closing recently. That's something they could surely do pretty much immediately to generate positive buzz about the area, and would probably help grease the wheels for the office and residential moving in. It's hard to figure out what's taking so long.

Between this and Larry Rice being reined in, I think downtown could be poised to take off over the next few years. But stuff seems to move at a glacial pace in this city (anywhere outside of Cortex, at least), so who knows if any of this will ever happen.

jsbru wrote:it's pretty much a sure thing that there's a shortage of hotel rooms in Downtown with like three of them closing recently.

Do you know the current occupancy of hotel rooms in downtown? I doubt theres a shortage of hotel rooms. If anything, there was an oversupply.

I don't know their exact numbers but I have heard occupancy rates are solid.

Its hard to believe 3 hotels would close in a submarket where hotels are doing well. That just doesn't make sense.

thank you Kevin for being the sober voice of reason.

kbshapiro wrote:Its hard to believe 3 hotels would close in a submarket where hotels are doing well. That just doesn't make sense.

The Millennium was infested with mold and a dump.

Many other hotels have had significant upgrades putting pressure in the lower end if the hotel market downtown

Marriott is going into the old Ren Suites which has absorbed some loss

I also hear of a boutique chain strongly considering downtown.

Letter to the Editor in today's Post:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/ma ... d3370.html

well-written..concise and to the point. does that gentleman post on this site?

framer wrote:Letter to the Editor in today's Post:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/ma ... d3370.html

Gahhh. It is so completely frustrating to think about the ballpark village situation.