Ballpark Village Towers and Mixed Use Project

tbspqr · PostAug 05, 2008#38262008-08-05T03:33+00:00

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

Work could begin soon on Ballpark Village site

By Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

08/05/2008

Cardinals fans and passers-by can now see equipment and activity on the long-vacant site of the proposed Ballpark Village.

The co-developers, Baltimore-based Cordish Co. and the St. Louis Cardinals, said site work on the downtown retail and entertainment district would begin today.

The site work — such as excavating the piers from the previous stadium and grading — is needed to get the property ready for construction.

MattnSTL · PostAug 05, 2008#38272008-08-05T03:42+00:00

It did start today. Sort of. The crew showed up this morning, put a bucket on one of the excavators and took about 3 scoops of rock. They then shut down, packed up, and drove off. Kind of mirrors the projects as a whole.

Looked like they dug out a small spot at the edge of the lake. I'm assuming it was to make a low point to put the pump line into. Maybe more tomorrow.

shaneo69 · PostAug 05, 2008#38282008-08-05T13:43+00:00

08/04/2008 1:57 PM ET

Cards ready to unveil All-Star logo

2009 Midsummer Classic to be played at new Busch Stadium

MLB.com

Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals and the city of St. Louis will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. ET (2 p.m. CT) on Tuesday to unveil the official logo of the 80th All-Star Game, which will be played at Busch Stadium on July 14, 2009.

Tuesday's press conference will be streamed live on MLB.com and stlcardinals.com.

It will be the fifth All-Star Game hosted by St. Louis, and the first to be played in the new Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006 and played host to the World Series in its inaugural season.

Previous All-Star Games in St. Louis were played in 1940 and 1948 at Sportsman's Park, in 1957 at Busch Stadium (the renamed Sportsman's Park), and in 1966 during the inaugural season of Busch Memorial Stadium.

The last All-Star Game played in St. Louis 43 years ago was a classic, started by the Tigers' Denny McLain and the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax. Maury Wills' 10th-inning single delivered a 2-1 win for the National League on a day when the temperature reached 105.

The American League triumphed, 6-5, in 1957 and 5-2 in 1948. The 1948 game featured a home run by the Cardinals' Stan Musial.

The first All-Star Game in St. Louis was a 4-0 NL win at Sportsman's Park in 1940.

Official All-Star Game merchandise will go on sale Tuesday at stlcardinals.com and the team store at Busch Stadium.

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/a ... p&c_id=stl

phoaddict · PostAug 05, 2008#38292008-08-05T14:55+00:00

if only we could import/hire 24/7 chinese construction workers. the project would be done by february

jlblues · PostAug 05, 2008#38302008-08-05T17:33+00:00

^For a quarter of the cost.

Slay said he was encouraged by Cordish's intention to begin site work.

"It's good to see they believe enough in the project to get started," he said. - Ouch!

Slay was an early backer of the Ballpark Village project but has expressed impatience at the lack of progress. The team and Cordish could have begun improving that a long time ago, he said.

"It's their property. It's their money,"Slay said. "They could've started building this thing two years ago."

It almost sounds like Da Mare has been reading this forum.

matguy70 · PostAug 06, 2008#38312008-08-06T01:57+00:00

FORBES

Development at old St. Louis Busch Stadium begins

Associated Press 08.05.08, 1:36 PM ET

ST. LOUIS - Work is beginning at the Ballpark Village site near the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Early stages of the project will involve excavation and draining the large pool of water in the vacant land left behind by the demolition of old Busch Stadium.

Plans call for a complex of office space, retailers and restaurants that will eventually replace the muddy eyesore of vacant ground.

The Cardinals and the developer, the Cordish Co., hope to have phase 1 finished by 2010. Though the site won't be completed before next year's All-Star Game, the Cardinals expect to use part of the grounds for activities related to the game.

Read Full Article:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/ ... 91060.html

shimmy · PostAug 06, 2008#38322008-08-06T14:21+00:00

Really? Or is this more of the "We're going to clean up a little bit and call it the early phases of construction so people get off our backs"?

stlbluejay · PostAug 06, 2008#38332008-08-06T15:05+00:00

Shimmy wrote:Really? Or is this more of the "We're going to clean up a little bit and call it the early phases of construction so people get off our backs"?

We have a winner!

matt · PostAug 06, 2008#38342008-08-06T18:28+00:00

Has anyone else heard that Stifel Nicolaus is moving their HQ to BPV?

threeonefour · PostAug 06, 2008#38352008-08-06T21:29+00:00

Shimmy wrote:Really? Or is this more of the "We're going to clean up a little bit and call it the early phases of construction so people get off our backs"?

FWIW, I'm still skeptical too. Yesterday's P-D was filled with just as much ambiguity as everything else that's been said so far.

But hey, we've got an All-Star Game logo now! Woo-hoo!

survivor147 · PostAug 12, 2008#38362008-08-12T16:27+00:00

Has anymore work been done since? I haven't made it to downtown in a few weeks.

rencelas · PostAug 12, 2008#38372008-08-12T18:10+00:00

Survivor147 wrote:Has anymore work been done since? I haven't made it to downtown in a few weeks.

They've definitely dug some more holes. I have no idea what they are for.

They were working last Thursday during the Cards / Dodgers game.

dweebe · PostAug 12, 2008#38382008-08-12T18:18+00:00

Slightly OT: but the Dave matthews Band is releasing the Busch Stadium show as part of the Live Trax series. Here's a picture of the cover.

Can't find a bigger version. Hopefully the empty Ballpark Village lot is not too apparent on the cover.

jlblues · PostAug 12, 2008#38392008-08-12T20:47+00:00

rencelas wrote:
Survivor147 wrote:Has anymore work been done since? I haven't made it to downtown in a few weeks.

They've definitely dug some more holes. I have no idea what they are for.

They were working last Thursday during the Cards / Dodgers game.

From the P-D article:

The site work — such as excavating the piers from the previous stadium and grading — is needed to get the property ready for construction.

I thought the site had been prepped for construction already? That shows how much faith the Cardinals had that Ballpark Village was going to happen.

As far as removal of existing piers, you wouldn't do that unless you were pretty close to producing construction documents for Phase I, which seems unlikely.

MattnSTL · PostAug 13, 2008#38402008-08-13T03:37+00:00

I've been by many times in the past 2 weeks. The old piers are being excavated and demolished. Ahrens has also brought several pieces of equipment in that I would think signals a lot of grading. An articulated dump truck would not be needed just to pull piers. The lake is empty and finally almost dry as well. It was a little smelly for a few days. Hopefully the construction documents are pretty far along as jlblues suggested.

magnatron · PostAug 15, 2008#38412008-08-15T18:28+00:00

MattnSTL wrote:The lake is empty and finally almost dry as well.

I'm gonna miss the lake...... *sniffle sniffle*

rbb · PostAug 20, 2008#38422008-08-20T13:11+00:00

Pics I took during Sunday Brunch at the Top of the Riverfront restaurant this weekend:

It looks beautiful in reflection:

-RBB

MattnSTL · PostAug 20, 2008#38432008-08-20T13:55+00:00

Just to add a little more info, the site is actually being filled in. I don't know if the whole thing is, but a lot of dirt has been brought in.

moorlander · PostAug 20, 2008#38442008-08-20T15:26+00:00

I am having a really hard time deciding what's uglier, the Hilton buildings, the stadium parking garages, or the giant unkept dirt lot. I actually think the bpv site is the best looking of the three.

Why the hell can't all the hobo's hang out on the bpv site instead of lucas park... I wonder if the Cardinals would consider a buyout from Larry????

msu south sider · PostAug 20, 2008#38452008-08-20T16:21+00:00

Stadium garages have to be a close second, if not first in my book. Just terrible...right up their with the Kiener garages.

brickandmortar · PostAug 20, 2008#38462008-08-20T17:18+00:00

MattnSTL wrote:Just to add a little more info, the site is actually being filled in. I don't know if the whole thing is, but a lot of dirt has been brought in.

There are a ton of trucks filled with dirt driving through DT today. I figured they were headed that way, but wasn't sure.

matguy70 · PostAug 20, 2008#38472008-08-20T18:47+00:00

I actually like the Hilton towers... but I am probably in the minority.

tb1000 · PostAug 21, 2008#38482008-08-21T03:41+00:00

There are a ton of trucks filled with dirt driving through DT today

That's not good. This means they will fill it in and let it grow "grass".

I predict no BPV within the next two years.

framer · PostAug 21, 2008#38492008-08-21T04:27+00:00

I've always like the Hilton towers too.

threeonefour · PostAug 21, 2008#38502008-08-21T04:36+00:00

matguy70 wrote:I actually like the Hilton towers... but I am probably in the minority.

I agree with you about the Ballpark Hilton. I don't know why I like it, but it certainly doesn't offend me in any way.

The Stadium East/West and Kiener East/West garages, OTOH, well that's another story.

At the very least, it seems like the twin Stadium garages should've been remodeled to include street level retail space and then reclad to better match their surroundings, specifically Busch Stadium and the Ballpark Village Mirage.

Speaking of the non-existant "village", I agree with TB1000. I'm glad to see some work in progress, but thanks to the Cardinals and Cordish I'm still quite skeptical about anything beyond grass and/or an expanded parking lot at this point.

Oh, and while I was shredding years-old documents the other day at home, I found a letter "signed" by Lou Brock and the late and great Jack Buck from "The Ballpark Partnership". I remember signing up in late 2001 or 2002 to show my support for the stadium and the Cardinals' "commitment to building a Ballpark Village". (I'd say it's an apt demonstration of how much commitments to the community mean to the Cardinals.) In addition to the letter I received a certificate with a BPV rendering in the background. The date on the letter? February 1, 2002.

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