urbanSTL

^Except the salespeople at SkyHouse are still apparently spreading the rumor.

Skyhouse won't be completed within 2 yrs so they could be telling the truth.

Good point. I'm just a little skeptical from info coming from a salesperson. This reminds me of when the Ely Walker sales people were talking like Borders moving into the building was almost a certainty.



Edit: By the way, I might be skeptical but I'm not negative about it - I would love for a Trader Joes or Whole Foods or even Borders to locate downtown.



I'm even very excited about the Schnucks. I wish they'd make it official though.

buckethead wrote:This reminds me of when the Ely Walker sales people were talking like Borders moving into the building was almost a certainty.

Yes. And IIRC, those rumors surfaced about two years ago, and they were even featured in Mayor Slay's blog way back when.



I believe in the future of downtown St. Louis, and I believe it won't be long before we see at least two out of the three retailers in downtown- Schnucks, Borders, or Trader Joe's. In the meantime, I won't pay too much attention to rumors, and I won't get too excited about anything that isn't official.

There was a small little blurb in the inside cover of last Fridays Business Journal about Straubs considering a location DT. The General manager, Paul Poe, said they were excited about all the development, but wouldn't comment on any locations.

The map of businesses surrounding Alexa shown at the party show's Schnucks.

BL211 wrote:The map of businesses surrounding Alexa shown at the party show's Schnucks.

They're probably acting on the same rumors the rest of us have been hearing. I continue to check Schnuck's web site for an announcement.

There are already 2 Starbucks within 2 blocks of the Alexa, Renaissance Grand and Sixth and Olive.

^3 within 3 blocks if you count the one in the Ballpark Hilton

If only someday we could get Whole Foods or Trader Joe's downtown...Too bad Whole Foods favors Town and Country for their next location. Schnucks will be an assett downtown, however I don't know why they are so reluctant to admit they are opening. I could certainly see a Trader Joe's before a Whole Foods, however both of which are many years away (10-15 years at minimum). Straub's will be interesting as well, however I'm not so sure they will do as well DT as they do in Clayton or in the CWE.

^ I'd bet there will be a Trader Joe's east of Kingshighway in less than five years. The city is still vastly underserved by grocery stores and those that exist are a little rough to horrible (just my o)

b777stl wrote:If only someday we could get Whole Foods or Trader Joe's downtown...Too bad Whole Foods favors Town and Country for their next location. Schnucks will be an assett downtown, however I don't know why they are so reluctant to admit they are opening. I could certainly see a Trader Joe's before a Whole Foods, however both of which are many years away (10-15 years at minimum). Straub's will be interesting as well, however I'm not so sure they will do as well DT as they do in Clayton or in the CWE.

I'm wondering if the sale of Desco is the reason for the delay?

^ I'd bet there will be a Trader Joe's east of Kingshighway in less than five years. The city is still vastly underserved by grocery stores and those that exist are a little rough to horrible (just my o)

I think you are right, probably in the Central West End area on Lindell. While I have no information from TJ's to support this, their store in Brentwood is ALWAYS busy and they ALWAYS ask for my zip code at check-out. Instead of giving them my own zip code, I give them 63101 for downtown with hopes to bring up their data.



Back to Brentwood, that store is packed with WUSTL students now that the #2 WUSTL Red and MetroLink go near the store-so I'm sure a location in the city is coming. What does anyone think about a store near South Grand or Hampton Village?



As far as Desco goes, I thought Brentwood Promenade (Target, Bed Bath Beyond, etc) was manged by Sansone Group, and therefore I don't know the signficance. I'm not sure who manages the complexes for the other Trader Joe's out west, however most stores stay with one developer (such as Schnucks wtih Desco or Dierbergs with Sansone). I think the new Whole Foods at the former Lucent will be under Brentwood based Pace Porperites (like Brentwood Square-Circuit City, REI, Borders)

It's pure speculation on my part, but I think the next major development we'll see that's likely to include TJ's (and maybe Target) is the rumored reuse of the Federal Mogul property adjacent to SLU. There's another thread about this site elsewhere in these forums.

Has anyone been by here recently? And if so, what is the status of the store? Any word on when it may open?

In regards to Trader Joe's, unfortunately it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon. For what its worth, this past weekend I asked the cashier at the Brentwood store about future locations and he said they were done with St. Louis for the time being. He said that while the Brentwood store does great business, the other St. Louis area locations are underperforming. I wonder if it would be different though if they looked at locations East of Brentwood instead of West of Brentwood...

Meteo wrote:He said that while the Brentwood store does great business, the other St. Louis area locations are underperforming. I wonder if it would be different though if they looked at locations East of Brentwood instead of West of Brentwood...

I say it's their loss, although I thought I heard or read somewhere not long ago that Trader Joe's had a two-year plan, and an area location east of their Brentwood store wasn't in it.



It'll be interesting to see how well TJ's does once Interstate 64/Highway 40 is shut down for two years, along with other businesses in that area for that matter. I can think of several locations east of Brentwood Boulevard which could work well, including the proposed development along Forest Park Avenue east of Vandeventer Avenue. Also, it seems like there are areas in the Metro East (Fairview Heights, Shiloh, or Edwardsville) that would be logical choices for TJ expansion.

I could see TJs opening somewhere in Illinois such as Belleville or Shiloh. Forest Park at Vandaventer seems a little odd, I would expect them to go to say Lindell abd Sarah or somewhere on South Kingshighway. As for the Brentwood store, I think they will do just fine during the construction-sure their sales may drop little however people in Clayton and Richmond Heights will still be able to get there easily. TJs really needs to come downtown...

b777stl wrote:TJs really needs to come downtown...

Now that would be odd!



Anyway, I'd bet that the Galleria area will suffer most in 2008 when access from the West is limited. Although if people take Manchester, Ladue and Clayton Roads maybe traffic will still be there. I'll have to wait and see how traffic goes, but from FPSE I think I'll still go to Trader Joe's. I guess I'll go a slightly different times to avoid traffic (not immediately after work, etc.), but I'll still go. I haven't shopped much at the South City Target/Schnuck's are, but this may become option #1 - we'll see. I got a felling I'm going to love 2008 however - traffic on 64 will be cut substantially - I'll be able to breeze through to the Galleria area!

Is there anything new with the "possible" new Schnucks downtown?

^ It seems like a longshot (I figure TJ or WF would prefer a higher-visibility spot somewhere near the I-64 corridor), but I hope Belleville can pull it off.

Big article about the remodeling of the Town & Country location and how the expansion of SuperWalMarts and Trader Joes has Schnucks scared.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument



EDITED: Schnucks is also closing their north Arnold store since a Dierbergs and Super WalMart are opening close by. The much newer south Arnold store on Vogel Road (just on the Arnold city border) will remain open.



Still nothing about downtown though.