urbanSTL

I think the cortex is awesome and i love to see that growth in the city. One observation is that we already have a dense, walkable area with hotels, restaurants, etc. - downtown. It seems that now some companies want to leave downtown for the Cortex. What does one walk to in the Cortex district today? There is one cafe, but that's it. I know there are plans for the Foundry, which are awesome, and perhaps some additional retail, but I honestly think downtown is still a far more vibrant business district. I'm not trying to knock Cortex, I really do think it's awesome for our region, but people seem to think that this area is the only thing "happening" in the city, and i'd argue that Downtown is still a cooler location with building stock, a fully walkable grid, restaurants, hotels, creative office, lofts, etc.. Perhaps i'm biased.

Cortex should be known as parking lot/garage capitol of the City.

^ I'm trying to get a sense of how big a 1,000 car garage is going to be.... anyone recall how large the monster garage over on Duncan that BJC put up recently? Not sure exactly the site plan, but I believe that the next phase is going to be pretty tightly clustered but I wouldn't doubt a big honking garage behind the new office building will take up a big portion of the US Metals site.

jcity wrote:I think the cortex is awesome and i love to see that growth in the city. One observation is that we already have a dense, walkable area with hotels, restaurants, etc. - downtown. It seems that now some companies want to leave downtown for the Cortex. What does one walk to in the Cortex district today? There is one cafe, but that's it. I know there are plans for the Foundry, which are awesome, and perhaps some additional retail, but I honestly think downtown is still a far more vibrant business district. I'm not trying to knock Cortex, I really do think it's awesome for our region, but people seem to think that this area is the only thing "happening" in the city, and i'd argue that Downtown is still a cooler location with building stock, a fully walkable grid, restaurants, hotels, creative office, lofts, etc.. Perhaps i'm biased.

What are you hearing on the moving from downtown front? That is always a concern with downtown struggling and other places in the region moving ahead with office momentum. Overall, though, I think Cortex was needed to jumpstart tech growth in the city... we certainly have some good things going on with tech downtown that need to be nurtered and supported but with downtown leadership as a whole not really having its act together I'm not sure we'd be as far along as where we are now. Downtown stakeholders need to get it together.

New garage on Duncan is 3,000 spaces, IIRC.

^ thanks... that sounds about right. So 1,000 while big seems like it could avoid disaster with decent design

Brentwood MetroLink garage at the Meridian is 1200 spaces

^ while I wouldn't want to plop that garage on Cortex, I wouldn't mind Mai Lee restaurant.

I doubt many people walk from cortex to the heart of the cwe for lunch during the week. Again, I'm not trying to knock cortex, overall, I think it's great and the majority of its growth seems to be from companies moving in from the suburbs to the city. So, if the quasi urban-campus is a way to do that, then great. I just think downtown is far more walkable and vibrant.

^ yeah, it is kind of a hike from Cortex to even say Panera, let alone say Maryland Plaza. That's also why I think the Saint Louis Streetcar would be a big help with Central Corridor connectivity as not a whole lot of people use Metrolink to enjoy the heart of the CWE, Grand Center, Midtown or even Downtown West.

As for Cortex-Downtown competition, while I agree downtown offers a more interesting environment, companies like Square and Microsoft as well as established locals and start-ups are free to choose b/w the two sites (or elsewhere); why most seem to be selecting Cortex over downtown I'm not sure but probably has a lot to do with Cortex having its own business development that downtown seems to lack besides T-Rex. We'll never know, but I imagine some of what is in Cortex would be in downtown if Cortex did not exist, but as I mentioned before I believe Cortex was probably needed to boost our city's tech sector compared to a some others where an already appealing downtown area attracts the tech energy.

chaifetz10 wrote:Per NextSTL, Koman purchased 3.3 acres of the St. Louis Metalizing site.

https://nextstl.com/2016/10/koman-group ... community/

Outbid Cortex. Koman is loving the central corridor now.

^ great to see multiple players interested in the area.... looks like "unique workspaces with character" will be Koman's focus here, which is great, but I hope they mix in some other uses as well.

And may we please start getting some variety in the building designs?

^ that's pretty cool stuff; look forward to seeing that develop.

They really need to hurry up with that new Metrolink station. The street grid in Cortex was not and is not being designed to handle all the auto traffic that lets out of here at ~5pm, and it's only going to get worse when new buildings go up. It's currently a giant cluster-bleep, and the delays of getting on I-64 from Sarah and Boyle through some tiny, one lane intersections are causing backups all the way to Forest Park Ave.

With that said, even getting the Metrolink station here is likely to be not enough due to the 1) lack of coverage of this city's public transit system, and 2) lack of transit-oriented development where there is coverage. For too many people in this metro area, the automobile is the only realistic option they have. There's no realistic option if you live in South County, West County, and St. Charles County. And the options from North and South City aren't good either.

There's some semi-convenient park n' rides in the Metro East and in the Southwest County area. But we also need to prioritize a North/South connection and better bus service in between.

I think taking two trips (a car ride and a train ride) is going to turn a lot of people off. I mean, I realize that you have to have park n' rides here because of the lack of coverage, but some better TOD would be better for everyone. Clear up congestion for those that still have to drive for whatever reason. A less stressful commute for those who don't like cars.

The train itself is pretty full during rush hour. If they expand the system, it would be nice to see them start adding cars to trains. That would probably help the entire system's profitability.

Not sure who Skift is, but they've got nice things to say about St. Louis, Cortex and the Murmuration Festival:

https://skift.com/2016/10/14/st-louis-t ... -festival/