urbanSTL

Wonder if this puts the Trader Joe's in Iron Hill theory to bed. City target or Aldi look like better bets now.

I think that if Trader Joe's were going to go into the city, it would be in the Central West End, even with the Whole Foods there. 

I suppose I could also see them going into Cortex if the neighborhood and surrounding area become more fleshed out. Needs residential. 

KansasCitian wrote:I think that if Trader Joe's were going to go into the city, it would be in the Central West End, even with the Whole Foods there. 

I suppose I could also see them going into Cortex if the neighborhood and surrounding area become more fleshed out. Needs residential. 

I’d thought the best location for Trader Joe’s was on DeBaliviere with the new TOD development.


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I think Trader Joe’s or Aldi would be good for the iron hill development. fresh thyme is a big win for city foundry and I know definitely there’ll be residential coming soon. Anywhere in that vicinity is like a miniature boom
Town


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Wonder how long it has been since there was a grocery store in Mill Creek.

Great news. I know we have some stores in the county but I haven't been to one yet. Hopes are high and it might become our go-to vs Schnucks. I wonder what this'll do to the Schnucks on Lindell. Might force them to make improvements.

flipz wrote: Great news. I know we have some stores in the county but I haven't been to one yet. Hopes are high and it might become our go-to vs Schnucks. I wonder what this'll do to the Schnucks on Lindell. Might force them to make improvements.

We have one up here in Davenport & I enjoy it.  It doesn't have as large a variety as does a Schnuck's (Hy-Vee), so I don't know if it will fully replace Schnuck's (Hy-Vee).  More akin to a TJ's - it has a good variety of prepared food, bulk & lots of "fun" stuff, some of their produce is good, some is iffy. 

Nice get for Foundry. That's the type of net new business they need to add to make it more viable long term as I don't know the shelf life for things like gimmick bowling alleys. Fresh Thyme also seems to be a niche grocer that is more of a supplemental store rather than the primary grocer people use. So it's not like it's going to crush the Schnucks on Lindell.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Trader Joe's pop up in the Iron Hill development. I don't think they go out of their way to avoid competition like Fresh Thyme.  Aldi isn't quite as common in urban developments as Trader Joe's is. And City Target remains a pipe-dream at this point. They've been pretty stingy about expanding the smaller City concept and have largely kept them in much higher density, established walkable areas (i.e. Lincoln Park, etc). I wouldn't imagine STL is on their short list of markets to bring City Target to.

Trader Joe's goes into very urban areas, but they remain pretty picky about where they go. They certainly look for a few things when deciding where to put a store - college educated residents, subscribers of Bon Appetit, road traffic numbers, population density, etc. 

I think the Central West End and Cortex seem like the best bets for all of that in the Central Corridor. 

KansasCitian wrote: I think that if Trader Joe's were going to go into the city, it would be in the Central West End, even with the Whole Foods there. 

I suppose I could also see them going into Cortex if the neighborhood and surrounding area become more fleshed out. Needs residential. 

Trader Joe's wants to be near Whole Foods, in urban areas at least.  I think it's actually part of their business model.

TJ's actually does not have that many urban locations outside of the west coast and the other big, high-density metros, but the ones they do have, in cities like Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Atlanta (one each), are all within a half-mile of a Whole Foods, except Denver, which has two, each about a mile from the nearest Whole Foods.

They like high-traffic, high-visibility retail areas, and prefer stand-alone buildings with surface parking - similar to a Walgreen's, but they will do strip centers, and rarely, mixed-use buildings.  I think the most likely spot right now for a St. Louis city location is Lindell and Sarah.  But if they wait a few more years, and there is a residential building boom around Cortex and the Foundry, they might like Forest Park and Sarah, even with Fresh Thyme a couple blocks away.

Big red crawler crane was delivered this week and is getting assembled. Garage precast is expected to start showing up after the holiday weekend.

Looks like the same Manitowoc MLC 300 with Variable Position Counterweight that erected the Centene west garage. Nice.

17 million dollar, 23 year TIF passed the BOA today for Phase 2. 

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/c ... BBId=13308

midwest_best wrote:17 million dollar, 23 year TIF passed the BOA today for Phase 2. 

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/c ... BBId=13308

What does phase 2 entail?


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This is document from last year shows the development area and states that it will include office and retail - subject to change. 

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/internal-app ... /70750.pdf

Still so much about this project I don't quite get, and the renderings do not help.  All I can tell from this rendering is that that is one very good pupper who clearly deserves a treat.

This must be the south elevation of the garage, but there can't be a lot of room for retail space there, and the scale model did not show anything built on top of the garage like this would seem to indicate.  From what I could see, the garage is basically a surface parking lot along much of Forest Park Ave., between the Byco building (Fresh Thyme) and the Alamo Brewhouse, with at least one level of parking below the FPA grade.  Maybe this is part of Phase II?  Also, is the backside of Alamo up against Forest Park Ave., or is that just more surface parking?  Either would be kind of sucky.

What you are looking at in the rendering is the south side of the 2 new mixed use buildings. These are being built directly to the south of the parking garage that is between Alamo and Byco. 

They are the 2 buildings circled in red. 



The garage appears to be a surface parking garage from FPA, because historic guidelines required there be a unobstructed view from FPA to the main Foundry building. The garage has 3 levels with only the top level visible from FPA. The garage is subgrade on the north side, but all open on the others. There has been extensive excavation and a massive retaining wall built for this. 

There is a combined number of ~37,500 SF of office/retail space within those 2 new buildings. 

The back (meaning the north side) of Alamo will be built all the way to the sidewalk of FPA. This is because of another NPS requirement, that the new Alamo building be built to be as similar as the old warehouse that was there before, which was abutting the sidewalk.

stlnative,  curious if the rules apply to phase II along Vande?  Assume not but I know squat on the subject of historic tax credits.

East side of Vande could see some real changes and hopefully it will be a mix of 5 to 15 stories mixed use, residential and office from Phase II, Cortex East and the corner of FPP & Vande.   

dredger wrote: stlnative,  curious if the rules apply to phase II along Vande?  Assume not but I know squat on the subject of historic tax credits.

No, the visual connection to the main Foundry is only from FPA looking south. Since there was a building there on the "phase 2" site (where the construction trailers currently sit), the visual connection doesn't apply. Obviously those buildings have since been removed, and were not an original part of the historic submission to NPS. Anything goes on that portion of the project, obviously subject to zoning, but I believe this site is currently listed as unrestricted. 

Looks like Foundry had some success in funding round via opportunity zone as per biz journals article.   Wonder if this capital is towards current construction or piggy bank on phase II

On a different note, too bad Biz Journals couldn't make use of the one of the more recent photos posted on this thread in the online article.  

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... s_headline