urbanSTL

Which one will Phase II be? Or will it be something totally different? My guess is yes.

However, I prefer the third rendering.

The updated website includes the following:

Future phases will include office, residential, and hotel as well as more retail.

And

Office space will be developed in future phases with over 750,000 square feet.

And

Ballpark Village will over luxury residential units overlooking Busch Stadium in future phases.

Note the overhead rendering involving the Metrolink TOD being finalized. This rendering includes three office towers along Walnut; hotel space at 8th & Clark; and residential at Clark & Broadway, all of which would seem to match the Phase Two renderings on the site.

wabash wrote:^I think it says more about Globe writers than it does about Downtown St. Louis. They're in St. Louis for the World Series and the coolest thing they can find to do is Cafe Napoli in Clayton? Wow.

Cafe Napoli is prime hunting grounds for Cardinal and other players to meet "jersey chasers". That's where they probably got their info from.

So Fox Sports Midwest will have a studio at BPV for Cards and Blues games and will be the sponsor for the Live venue.... Cordish says 300 or so events and people will be done there 52 weeks of the year.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... d5cff.html

Aside from the parking lot/grid issue, Phase I seems like it has a promising future for at least a seasonal entertainment hub.... still not sure on how much the Cards/Bud/Cowboy Bar will draw off-season even with planned events but I'm hopeful it will draw families from the burbs who otherwise wouldn't come downtown non-gameday.

^ BPV is a much different demographic than Paddy O's, etc. and I think I'm more optimistic on this doing well from April through October non-gameday.... I can see this being pretty popular with tourists and families in-season.... for example enjoying the Arch and/or Citygarden and then moseying on over for lunch or dinner and Cardinals HOF... and maybe an event at BPV. And I think the Cards themed restaurant/bar essentially will be an ESPN Zone that should have some decent sports bar traffic.

But I just don't know if downtown has the numbers during the Nov-March cold season for it to be robust without more surrounding activity as you say.

Some have mentioned a wish/hope for street level local news studios downtown with pedestrian visibility and this is a nice start. This will likely serve as a pre/postgame hub for Blues games and shuttles down Clark/Spruce to Scottrade from the BPV bar(s) seem like a no brainer. That at least brings some traffic in the dead of winter. It's also easy to imagine Rams gameday specials and events NFL Sunday ticket parties, etc. If they are smart this will evolve into a Sunday destination for local fans of other teams. Here in Memphis at the place where I watch the Rams the Browns, Steelers, and Redskins have local Fan Clubs that meet there weekly who would kill for a venue like BPV to set up shop; espeically when their game was not during Rams game.

Also, I have no experience with the Live! component of these developments but as a local music supporter, it could be a great oportunity for our awesome talent to gain exposure to the large ballpark crowds. Concert events hosted by the coming Blues Mueseum paired with Blues hockey nights?!? That's a slam dunk with oozing with partnered marketing potential with FSM. Love the Rawlings, et al idea too. I swoon at the thought of slick Rawlings signage visible from the stadium, but that's mostly from the nostalgia of smelling well-oiled gloves as a kid while playing catch (Ray Liota as Shoeless Joe, Field of Dreams).

I drove down Clark St. between Busch and BPV after the Rams game on the way out of town Sunday evening and I patiently remain optimistic about it's ability to enhance the gameday experience.

DeWitt says Ballpark Village suitable for office and residential towers

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 35740.html

Ballpark Village has three good sites for office buildings plus room for a hotel and a tall, thin residential tower without blocking views of the Arch from inside Busch Stadium.

That's the word today from Bill DeWitt III, president of the Cardinals.

When such buildings might go up is anyone's guess....
(Continues)

“We still very much want this to be a mixed-use village,” DeWitt told the UMSL crowd.

Three spots on the 10-acre site are good places for office buildings, he said. A hotel also could be built at Ballpark Village and a tall, skinny residential tower could go up and still preserve Arch views, DeWitt added.

An office building and residential towers were included in early plans for Ballpark Village. Then the economy tanked. Most of Ballpark Village is currently carpark village.

What seems to be going up in most downtowns across the country are hotels, apartment towers, condo towers and build-to-suit office projects. DeWitt, in my opinion, needs to change his strategy and pursue hotels - especially in light of The Millennium Hotel's closure - residential towers, retail and entertainment for BPV. Downtown could use some attractions such as Madame Tussauds and/or Ripley's etc..

If demand for office space isn't there, holding out for offices makes no sense to me. DeWitt needs to concentrate on making the land more valuable by developing it. By developing the land they have, it could help to drive up the need for office space downtown as well as rent/lease rates for all segments. However, DeWitt likely wants a big office tenant with a lease at BPV because it could yield more money for Cordish and the Cardinals.

We are still in a very mild recession. Around the country, downtown office markets and submarket "edge cities" are still struggling to fill office space. Notable exceptions are Houston, Washington D.C. and Dallas.

Minneapolis's downtown is usually robust with office development, but lately all they have been throwing up there are TALL residential towers. The planned stumpy office buildings for downtown Minny pale in comparison to previous years when their downtown saw a lot of new office high-rises.

Yeah, Bill DeWitt didn't really say anything new today.
"It's a great site for office growth, just that no one wants to grow new offices right now..."
Hey Bill: This is what you get for wanting to be a real estate developer. Live with it and do your job.

Props to Tim Bryant for writing "Carpark Village" in his article.

Focus: Agree with the above consensus that BPV could build out residential before they land a full-time office tenant. I bet their plans are to first get the Entertainment Site (Building One) up and running, then using the revenues from it to help fund future construction, which will include (1) a residential tower sticking up just NE of BPV Building One, and (2) a mixed-use site with a boutique hotel just West of BPV Building One. Unless the commercial real estate market changes significantly in the next three years, I think the whole southern half of BPV's footprint will be occupied before any of the three towers proposed for the northern half rise above street level.

Still, as more revenues are garnered, I see the first of 3 office buildings going up, the first one as a somewhat spec office space to lure tenants, and all the while seeking out relocation candidates to have majority and branding rights to a building unto themselves.

I am very curious how proactive Cordish, DeWitt, et.al. are courting prospective large business tenants to BPV. Because if I were them, I'd be hitting up Monsanto to relocate its HQ from its research campus in the County.

^I too have wondered to what extent have they been speaking to local, domestic and international firms about downtown. You keep hearing, "There has been a lot of interest in BPV.", but they never reveal any of the interested parties.

Overall, I think they need to formulate a list of companies that are most likely to locate (or relocate) to downtown St. Louis and go after them. It's messed up that they couldn't get LaClede to anchor a new building.

Also, with campus assets in Creve Coeur and Chesterfield, do you really think Monsanto would go downtown? I could be wrong, but I really don't think so. Monsanto has too much land in the suburbs to be leasing downtown. It would be nice though. I personally was hoping Monsanto would build a facility in CORTEX.