Here's some good news posted to Metro's NextStop STL Blog:
"Construction of a new walkway between the Brentwood I-64 MetroLink Station and the Dierbergs Market at Brentwood Pointe retail center on Eager Road is scheduled to begin Monday, July 27."

A lot of people were disappointed with the west-side access when it opened back in 2006. Great to see Dierberg's getting on board: "A cart corral will be installed near the new walkway, making it even easier for Metro passengers to hop off the bus or train, do some shopping, and get back on MetroLink." Hopefully this includes extending a sidewalk along the west side of Hanley industrial court, to provide pedestrian access from Eager.


(from NextStop STL)

Finally....hopefully in 15-20 years when this supermarket needs replacement, we will see a mixed use proposal rise.

An obvious thing to do form the beginning. It is just inhumane what they made people do there. This was the only grocery store near a Metrolink station when the Cross County was planned. Should have been expected that lots of people might want to go there. My best guess was they were worried the parking lots would get used for park n ride. Probably the same reason you can't got straight to Tropicana Lanes.

A sidewalk was added not that long ago to the east side of Hanley Industrial Ct. My guess was that people frequently walked in the street to get to Dierbergs,etc. Too bad they took out the trees rather than sacrifice some of the unneeded street width. Oh, the tings we put pedestrians through!

^This might be a stretch, but I wonder if the new Drury had anything to do with the pedestrian access improvement. Someone could stay there planning on popping over to the Metrolink to go to a game then think "Dear God, this place is a death trap." Now, despite not being the most scenic or serene of walks, it's actually pretty convenient.

I wonder if infill could work on that lot. Seems like with some type of garage component, we could get some nice mixed use infill on those lots. Cross County has soooooo many missed opportunities and it doesn't look like most municipalities have caught on yet, what a huge asset Metrolink can be to their communities. Sometimes I wish St. Louis had the Washington D.C. model where planning was done at the county level, its obvious these little communities have no vision and are too inept to take advantage of a nearly billion dollar piece of infrastructure. This just makes me even more fearful of a Westport line, it would be Cross County 2 without proper zoning in place.

STLEnginerd wrote:Haha um I think the garage component is there. The massive Metrolink garage sits very underutilized.

Infill could Definitely work, but I doubt deirbergs is going to just roll over for it. Home Depot is another good target for infill development but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. The only thing that will drive those two to walk away from their very profitable locations is if people stop shopping there. It could happen in a decade or two but there aren't any indications it's coming sooner.

Yeah, I agree....at least a decade and very large TIF. Hopefully in 2025, Brentwood and Richmond Heights will have the foresight. Hanley is currently looking very schizophrenic, some buildings are street facing then right next door a huge parking lot.

Drawing added to the Next Stop post

http://www.nextstopstl.org/nextstop/wp- ... EDITED.jpg

^ inhumae a little strong, and I stated that as someone who has left his car at Dobbs a few times and used metrolink as my ride. It is doable just not convenient

But I do got some questions, Does Deirbergs have their own development arm and most cases, own most of the real estate that their stores occupy? I believe Schnuck does but not sure what is the correct answer between the two.

Second, wasn't the stand alone store/box stores along Eager developed by Sansone group at one point? I can recall it being empty with Sansone's name being plastered on the available signs prior to the OfficeMax/or OfficeDepot going in. I ask because I'm curious if the parcels including the restaurant under one ownership? Has Sansone been burned so bad by The Boulevards that they have fundamentally written off mixed use.

Ideally, it would be nice if someone in an organization as big as Dierbergs can think outside of the St. Louis real estate stip store box mentality. Even if it is not built tomorrow, a long term vision for this property would be a mixed use, residential infill. The same for Home Depot on the other side. Someone at some point has to think in terms of value at some point or at least you would assume that some planning, renderings and square footage takeoffs from contractors blue book is worth the time.

My other comment, Metro and the county are not helping the matter in terms of expressing confidence or establishing a vision for metrolink's overall role for the region and transit in general. I believe any other transit agency light rail would have the Metro South (Cross County extension) planed with route selection finalized, preliminary engineering completed and possibly under construction by now or least have pursued Right of Way acquisition.

Glad to read that Manchester will get sidewalks west of the Metrolink station. Another mind-boggling omission.

StlToday - Maplewood budget approved, but city warned of possible revenue declines

Work will begin next year on redoing Manchester from Bredell to Hanley. The $1.6 million project will add a left-turn signal at Laclede Station Road and new sidewalks where there are none now, Corcoran said.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... 07527.html

^It's taken 9 years, but it's great to see some of these little oversights and omissions from Cross County being addressed. A few small investments around the stations can make a big difference in rider access and experience.

Hopefully pedestrian access to E. Linden Ave to Richmond Heights Station is next.

This will be so much better.

Random thought - Was at the “Roosevelt Collection Shops” in Chicago. Given some momentum to infill large shopping developments, I wonder if Brentwood Pointe and Promenade could be transformed into a similar type space. The Roosevelt Shops in Chicago area is not necessarily the best urban development/design and is a smaller footprint but it is an improvement on the Brentwood developments. Build easily accessible parking garages with plazas and housing. Could add more retail fronts if that is viable. Transforming the parking lots into walkable strips between garages and stores would make the connection to the Metrolink station must improved.

I wouldn’t start with a Roosevelt Shops if I was designing a city but it is something that is an achievable transformation for things like Brentwood, Hampton Plaza, Gravois Plaza, Kingshighway Center, Lindell Marketplace, etc. St. Louis Marketplace’s have proven not to work forever.

wabash wrote: ↑

Jul 25, 2015

(from NextStop STL)

The photo that Wabash shared on original post and the home depot on the other side says it all on why the county and in part the inner burbs have failed to move the needle with a huge investment by its taxpayers.  I assume that this shot redone today would show no changes.   Just imagine if this parking lot, the home depot were redeveloped into mixed use as delmar2 referenced.  

I also believe the only reasonable fixed transit investment that the county should make in forseable future is extending current metrolink up I-170  and go a few more stops south of Shrewsbury in order to give a good chunk of South County direct access to Lambert or at least go west of Lambert a few more stops to give current metrolink access to Earth City job base.    I can comprehend the argument for metrolink in north county.   But can only come to the conclusion in that any other metrolink extension/expansion in the county would probably just result in more station stops with parking lots next door for more decades to come.   North County would probably be better served with new EV buses and better & frequent routes.