Golub & Co. seeks to revive 1970s-era complex with higher-end tenants
By Eric Heisler
Of the Post-Dispatch
12/26/2004
For years, West Port Plaza was hyped as a place to kick back and down a few beers.
Ads beckoned partyers to meet up for pub crawls: "Go from shirt and tie to 'Where's my shirt and tie?' in three bars flat."
But when new owners acquired the complex for $60 million this year, they were concerned that the beer guzzlers were doing little to fill West Port's empty office space.
Golub & Co. of Chicago, a part-owner that's managing the complex, canned the ads aimed at the nightclub crowd. Instead, it's launching a conservative campaign aimed at persuading white-collar executives to lease offices in West Port.
The move is part of Golub's strategy to revive West Port, an office-and-entertainment complex in Maryland Heights that was on the frontier of development trends when it was built in the 1970s. More recently, it has been plagued by a revolving door of owners and an office-vacancy rate that neared 25 percent this year.
Along with the less-sexy marketing strategy, the changes call for a more exclusive tenant base. Further changes might bring condos or apartments, which would be the complex's first residential component.
"People think: 'West Port. Yeah, that's the place my kids go to have a beer,'" said John Ferguson, a senior vice president at Golub. "They think: 'All I remember is that radio spot about losing my shirt. Do I really want to bring my customers there?'
"We want to get the guy who's going to spend $12 million (on an office lease) and not just the guy who's going to spend $6 on two Buds," he said.
West Port Plaza was conceived by developer Thomas J. White as a suburban complex that would benefit from a mix of offices, hotels, retailers, restaurants and night clubs. It was one of the first such post-World War II developments in St. Louis.
But as various owners have sometimes learned, combining those different uses hasn't always been smooth.
White, a prominent St. Louis developer, was known as a trailblazer, not only for West Port but also for his other projects, including an early suburban industrial park in Brentwood.
Richard Ward, a principal at consulting firm Development Strategies in St. Louis, said West Port was White's dream.
"He was a pioneer," Ward said. "He came back from Europe, and he was all excited about building something using the themes he saw in Switzerland. ... He thought that by having retail and restaurants right there, it would be attractive to the people with offices."
Today, the development is known for its gold office tower and Swiss village-style hotel. In between, the plaza has three other office buildings as well as small shops and eateries.
Golub and its partner, Investcorp International Inc., acquired West Port this year. It had been on the sales block for 2 1/2 years. The site had an ominously high office-vacancy rate, and it was about to be taken over by its fourth owner in 11 years.
Experience more
Even so, Golub believed that the conditions were right for the plaza to take off. For starters, West Port sits at the intersection of Interstate 270 and Page Avenue. And the recently opened Page Avenue extension serves as a shortcut to fast-growing St. Charles County.
The extension was a key factor when St. Paul Travelers decided to move its 250 local employees to West Port this year, said Bill Weiler, regional executive for the insurance company.
To read more:Golub & Co. seeks to revive 1970s-era complex with higher-end tenants
Link: Golub and Company, Inc.
