urbanSTL

Gateway City wrote:Arcade in my opinion is like 99% for sure. Chemical is like 95%. I'm not too worried about them being canceled. They won't be.

Curious, what are you basing this on? Do you have sone details?

I went back an reread the Chemical and Arcade threads from the beginning.

The chemical/alexa one is a good read. Starting around 2008 every few months someone would say "Oh trust me its 100% on track". So, unless someone can provide detais on why they think it 95% then im going assume there are some troubles with this one. (Based on previous trends). THings have been a little to quiet on this one.

The arcade thread is more realistic. Though my personal favorite, was someone saying The Roberts Bros would never collapse. And people agreeing(Page 14). If this one can stay on track, even if chemical falls though, the arcade success will help chemical get back on/stay on track.

But im far far from an expert. Just trying to analyse trends in a forum on a lame cold dreary day

Even if the Chemical is lagging, the probable success of Roberts Tower and the soon-to-come Arcade will surely push the project forward.

Arcade is 105% happening, I know someone who is involved in the $ aspect of this and he says it's happening. Normally when these things fall apart, it's the $, In this case the $ part is solid

Hope your right cause i love to see both those corners come to life ....

Knowitall wrote:Arcade is 105% happening, I know someone who is involved in the $ aspect of this and he says it's happening. Normally when these things fall apart, it's the $, In this case the $ part is solid

I hope the guy who's involved in the $ aspect isn't the one who gave you the 105% figure.

-RBB

Presbyterian wrote:The Business Journal article three weeks ago said that Chemical Building construction would begin in the spring. Rosemann & Associates is the architect ... the same architect that was used in the pre-recession attempt. Paric is the general contractor. The building is already owned by the developer, and he has access to brownfield, federal historic and state historic tax credits.

Excellent. Thanks for the detailed update

The Business Journal article that was print and subscription only should now be available to all:
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/prin ... l?page=all

Besides mentions of the Chemical and Arcade, it says Tower OPOP intends to be ready for move-in in May.

The article isnt exaclty possitive on downtown. Not really negative but not possitive either. Plus the line "Downtown office employment is stagnant". I still think that will hold back downtown the most. I really think the focus should switch from condo/apts to either mixed use or attracting business down here. BTW montanso is spending 700 mil in chesterfield expasion...yay

Or if all the corporate offices of Clayton were built Downtown instead, such as Centene...

Aren't there enough parking lots around there to build on? Shouldn't have to sacrifice a building, and if we do, I would prefer it's something like McDonald's drive-thru.

Its going to be tough for downtown to garner any big company since most are rebuilding right where they are.. It baffles me the EJ doesn't even have a downtown presence. Start ups are downtowns future and some of those smaller companies will grow and get big take for example Lockerdome and Shipworks .. Demand is there for future growth of downtown residents but i don't think high end Condos are going to be the it factor like they once were will be more like upscale apartments be awesome if the introduced a Skyhouse proposal ...

roger wyoming II wrote:

deformative wrote:Someone looking to develop downtown lofts is looking for input. Could be a good opportunity.

http://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comment ... _lofts_in/

there are some negative comments on there.... I hope this doesn't scare away the possible developer!

I unfortunately agree with a lot of the comments. If there isn't an sporting event, conference, etc downtown isnt very welcoming to people not familiar with the situation. Its seems there is still a 1 to 1 ratio of homeless to non homeless on the streets. That will scare anyone, especially women. My family still hates coming down here. And any non city resident girl i date always feels uncomfortable parking at night. But i go out of my way to tell them the homeless are harmless. (I live by NLEC)

The good thing was people seem to be honest in the reddit posts. They stated what was good and what was bad. There wasnt any downtown bashing. Just the unfortunate things that hold downtown back. If you look at the very last post it seem the OP was a little scared off by the comments

PS i love reddits comment structure so much better. I would love to upvote and downvote comments here!

roger wyoming II wrote:^ for the most part people were constructive but lucylupus was giving the impression everyone is moving out.

Well he wasnt lying about the crime part though. When Sugar was open on 14th i woke up to gunshots three nights in the span of 6 months. But that was 4 years ago. And thankfully its closed And yes i have had girls i know harassed by people on the street. So the perception of safety is still a huge issue. The line of Washington is a bust is total BS though. All that developer needs to do is drive down on a weekend night to prove that wrong

I highly doubt DT is starting to lose residents. If it's been said once it's been said a million times: DT isn't emptier now than it used to be because there are fewer people living there, it's because fewer people are working there. We have to aggressively try and lure as many companies and schools to DT as possible!

I think downtown in many ways is still searching for a new identity. I think its going through what many downtowns go through when they first start to redevelop and haven't hit that critical mass. 20 years ago you would hear similar stories in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston etc. this is not unique to St. Louis. The problem is in St. Louis it seems like civic leadership is not nearly bullish enough on making downtown the uncontested super vibrant neighborhood and commercial center of the metropolitan area. I think that has a lot to do with the city not being in the county. It is hard to imagine that downtown would have such horrible infrastructure, job loss, and downtrodden feel if it was the seat of a greater St. Louis County. With that said, I'm still very bullish on downtown St. Louis.

The CWE is many people's favorite neighborhood. In terms of beauty, size, and vibrancy, it is very competitive with other entire cities' actual Downtowns. Compare it to Downtown Tacoma, for example.



By the way, where is the information about the proposed 13 story structure on Lindell? I haven't heard anything about it outside of that article.