urbanSTL

They have dug up the old gas storage tanks from the former gas station at this site.

I'm confused. They're building homes on lots that the Gilded Age plans to level (in their vaguely planned phase II)? Does this mean that the dreaded Phase II is off the table? Seems to.

Gilded Age is not building these homes. Once their Phase II was taken off the table, this project got the green light (it had been on hold). This does make Gilded Age's Phase II less likely though, and hopefully will result in the other houses being fixed up soon.

TGE-ATW wrote:Gilded Age is not building these homes. Once their Phase II was taken off the table, this project got the green light (it had been on hold). This does make Gilded Age's Phase II less likely though, and hopefully will result in the other houses being fixed up soon.

Prior to the plans for 'Phase II', what was the main deterrent that prevented the other houses from being fixed up?

They were excluded from the Soulard, Lafayette Square, and John Nepomuk complex historic districts (which surround them) for somewhat arbitrary reasons. They were isolated by highway and interchange construction and basically left as orphaned step children, despite possessing great integrity as a knot of intact historic buildings with valuable architectural character. Because they were not in historic districts, they were not eligible for the state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits that have contributed so significantly to the revitalization of the surrounding neighborhoods.

TGE-ATW wrote:They were excluded from the Soulard, Lafayette Square, and John Nepomuk complex historic districts (which surround them) for somewhat arbitrary reasons. They were isolated by highway and interchange construction and basically left as orphaned step children, despite possessing great integrity as a knot of intact historic buildings with valuable architectural character. Because they were not in historic districts, they were not eligible for the state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits that have contributed so significantly to the revitalization of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Have they since been included in a Historic District that would make them qualify for Tax Credits? They're still cut off by the highway but it's hard to believe these buildings are in the shape they're in when they lie in such a highly visible and centralized location.



I asked a few posts back about one of them that literally was rehabbed, put on the market, bought by the LCRA, and boarded up. That one seems to be in a strange situation as I've seen pictures of the inside and it looked completely done. How it is sitting there with a board on its front window is beyond me.

I can only speculate that that happened because the city was in cahoots (at the behest of Alderman Young) with Guilded Age and their earlier plan. They buildings are not in a historic district now and probably never will be. However, as the area around them gets better and more desirable there will come an economic tipping point where it won't be necessary to use tax credit incentives to make their rehabilitation a profitable venture. Of course, this would hold more true if the planned commercial development interacted with them rather than facing them with a stark sidewall.

Sunflower Markets, which is owned by Supervalu, developer of the City Market concept has closed all their stores. Schuncks has annouced their downtown endeavour.



Where does this leave Georgian Square? My take is that this property will be vacant for years to come.

Georgian Square Dierberg's?

Conurbation wrote: I could live with a good Shop N Save though.

Is there such a thing?

Re: potential grocer: I think we should let Vince and sons open a humongous Vincent's market with G+W, Tropicana Market and Digregorio satellite locations.

The was a zoning meeting today to rezone Phase II from residential to commercial. This involved the property for the Butler's Pantry. It passed. Chris Goodson stated construction to begin in 30 days.



NOTE: this is not the Bohemian Hill development.

Watcher wrote:Sunflower Markets, which is owned by Supervalu, developer of the City Market concept has closed all their stores. Schuncks has annouced their downtown endeavour.



Where does this leave Georgian Square? My take is that this property will be vacant for years to come.

Unfortunately my gut feeling says I'd have to agree with you. Does anyone have any new solid info in regard to this project? I'm scheduled to look at a unit in the Georgian this weekend and have some mixed feelings about the area in general.

Things seem to be moving ahead with the new infill along Tucker, the environmental remediation guys have been out there working on the site (saw em today). To me, that means the threatened buildings are probably safe. As far as the shopping center goes, I think it'll happen. Guilded Age etc have been very slow on their projects in the area of the Georgian, this is no exception. The bottom line is, regardless of the economic slow-down, the calculations they must have done regarding the capability of the area to support a supermarket etc have not changed. This is not a residential project, they don't have to find new homeowners in an incredibly soft market. All they have to do is build a shopping center for the surrounding neighborhoods that they already determined needed one.

I heard that this project is dead.



Anyone else hear that?

^Which part? This thread covers a few different things in that area.



I recently noticed an additional sign on the Georgian Square corner. A banner specific for Walgreen's stating "Coming Soon" and listing their website/careers.com

Thanks for posting that. I saw that sign yesterday and wondered.



(On the downside, it will be repulsive if that development is now reduced to just a Walgreen's.)

GelatinousEndive wrote:I heard that this project is dead.



Anyone else hear that?

I don't think it is dead... They just put a new large sign up today for the new Walgreens. I think the Walgreens is a go, but the City Market and Starbucks are stalled. (hopefully not dead)

Maybe they're taking extra time to redesign the project to uphold urban design practices.



Or not. Wishful thinking, I know.

my guess is the redesign of the 44 exit ramp onto truman pkwy is slowing things down. one can only image how fast the hwy dept works.