urbanSTL

It will be even more connected to the Grove when the Tower Grove Connector phase 2 comes online

I hope it gets completed this time, it will be a great project.

Bring on the Sandcrawler!

pattimagee wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

Cortex lab space hits 100% filled, previously proposed projects could be revived

https://www.audacy.com/kmox/news/local/ ... ts-revived

Good to hear, I had thought they were having a tough time there lately but apparently not. 

^ & ^^ yes, bring on the Sandcrawler.   No easy task for getting the right leadership to convince the right people to put down enough capital on speculative lab space or find a way for CORTEX/Wash U/Barnes Jewish to leverage more space.  Which sounds like that is happening with one of the buildings referenced in the news story

100% of lab space is a great thing.  But situation suggests that CORTEX has not been able to put itself in an advantageous or more favorable position if an opportunity would arise..  Which I would put some blame as someone looking in from the outside on a once upon a time alderman that probably put the district back a couple of years.  

That seems to overstate the case, Fiorello got all the subsidies he wanted in the end.

Could downtown capitalize on the lab shortage with conversions in vacant buildings? I understand that labs likely require unique spaces, but could this be a way to jumpstart activity Downtown? It is not that far from Cortex. Just a thought. 

BB68 - Cortex West Redevelopment Area

An ordinance renewing the previous blight determinations made by Ordinance Number 66847 and Ordinance Number 66985, and as renewed by Ordinance Number 68754 and Ordinance Number 70119 and Ordinance Number 71214 for the Cortex West Redevelopment Area (defined below) such that CORTEX West Redevelopment Corporation ("CORTEX") can continue to exercise its right to use eminent domain granted by the city to complete the Redevelopment Plan.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/c ... BBId=16726

quincunx wrote: ↑

Oct 11, 2025

$25M building permit application submitted for a parking lot at 4148 CLAYTON AV

$25 million for a parking lot is insane.

We need some zoning adjustments in this district. There is an inefficiency of surface lots and anytime there’s any development, here comes another surface lots even though there are others not in use. Plus, the cortex station only being fronted by surface lots. It’s just horribly inefficient

Yeah for all the "district" stuff there's little in the way of shared parking among the offices. Still pissed about that little office building for the steel plant they tore down for nothing. The board should've pressure Fiorello about this before approving another TIF.

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

pattimagee wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

Cortex lab space hits 100% filled, previously proposed projects could be revived

https://www.audacy.com/kmox/news/local/ ... ts-revived

Good to hear, I had thought they were having a tough time there lately but apparently not. 

Lab space is tight. There is a new to market user from overseas out looking for 30,000 - 60,000 SF and not sure where they will find the space.

Jallen26 wrote: ↑

Oct 14, 2025

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

pattimagee wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

Cortex lab space hits 100% filled, previously proposed projects could be revived

https://www.audacy.com/kmox/news/local/ ... ts-revived

Good to hear, I had thought they were having a tough time there lately but apparently not. 

Lab space is tight. There is a new to market user from overseas out looking for 30,000 - 60,000 SF and not sure where they will find the space.

Is there a reason that vacant office space cannot be turned into lab space?

Auggie wrote: ↑

Oct 14, 2025

Jallen26 wrote: ↑

Oct 14, 2025

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2025

Good to hear, I had thought they were having a tough time there lately but apparently not. 

Lab space is tight. There is a new to market user from overseas out looking for 30,000 - 60,000 SF and not sure where they will find the space.

Is there a reason that vacant office space cannot be turned into lab space?

For older offices, no. For a really new office building with a strong floor load? Theoretically, yes. Although you are likely looking at anywhere from $500-$1,000 a foot to do so. The math just doesn't pencil out.

So there isn’t demand to support spec construction of labs in cortex but there are folks knocking on the door looking for 30-60 square feet of lab space in cortex?

JaneJacobsGhost wrote: ↑

Oct 14, 2025

So there isn’t demand to support spec construction of labs in cortex but there are folks knocking on the door looking for 30-60 square feet of lab space in cortex?

I have no idea, I am not a lab guy, very specialized product.

I am sure the demand is there but cost of capital, material and construction labor continue to be issues across the board. 

quincunx wrote: ↑

Oct 08, 2025

Stl PR - Officials say Cortex area still blighted after all these years, move renewal forward


https://www.stlpr.org/economy-business/ ... ent-domain

Board of Aldermen rejected this bill today, but will likely be brought back for another vote in the future.

I have a tech idea I'd like someone at Wash U, St Louis U, or Cortex to pursue.  Everything talks to everything nowadays with digital messages -- except cars.  To get that going, I'd like to see someone create a programmable QR code display that could be attached to the back of a car.  Then it could be viewed by the TV camera of the following car to receive a digital messages such as "I'm applying the brakes".   Then, unlike with current brake lights, a string of cars that each had a QR code display on back, and a TV camera on front, could pass back braking messages through the string of cars instantly allowing all the cars in the string  to start braking smoothly together instantly.  

How many times have we heard of trucks slamming into a string of cars killing everyone in the two or three cars in front of them. 

Per Google AI: 
What I'm describing is most commonly known as a 
chain-reaction collision or a multi-vehicle pileup, which is often described with the metaphor of the domino effect.
In this type of accident, one event triggers a sequence of subsequent events:

• A sudden, unexpected stop by a lead vehicle (your "frog car") can leave insufficient time or distance for following drivers to react and stop safely.
• The subsequent impacts push the cars into one another, much like a row of dominoes falling after the first one is pushed.

This simple QR code / TV camera communication could solve this and save lives.  And once you start the QR code to TV camera comms, it could lead to other traffic problem solutions.  Such as putting programmable QR codes on Stop Lights, stop signs, and my favorite -- DO NOT ENTER on interstate ramps to stop nearly-always fatal wrong way accidents on freeways.

I recently bought a new EV car whose front facing camera recognizes many different traffic signs and puts a tiny cartoon of it on my cash, such as stop signs, wrong way signs, etc.  But it doesn't do anything else.  It doesn't beep, say anything, or take any action.  It if was QR codes, I would hope a car could use it to do more than just show a dashboard cartoon of a wrong way sign.  It could stop the car.

And of course it could eventually go the other way too -- Programmable QR Screen on the front of a car, and a TV camera decoding it on the back.  Then if I wanted to honk at the car in front of me, when I push my horn, it could send a message to his car activating a small horn inside his car only, instead of waking the neighborhood at 3 AM.

If someone does this, I'll invest early.

I'd like cars to know the speed limit and not exceed it.

I'd also like cars to know whether they are registered and insured and not operate over say 10 mph without it

I'd also like cars to verify that the operator has a license

You could also make cars verify the operator is not intoxicated before operating

But we have to have freedumb