urbanSTL

Good advice Southslider.



By the way, I just saw some pics of downtown Memphis and they have a Tower Records. We can't we have one? Maybe something like that will come with Bottle or Ballpark.

Virgin, not Tower. Although, we could do both.



And not in the Village or BD. It needs to go into a current building. I think it would look great in the Bogen Lofts. Or maybe even the Arcade...how cool would that be?

Back on topic-

Has anyone heard any new info regarding a Borders coming to downtown?

I just reserved at the Ely Walker lofts, and although they did not say a borders, they did say that the first floor is going to be a restaraunt by the same people who did Red Moon and a National Retailer on the other side... Hopefully a Borders!

buckethead wrote:Has anyone heard any new info regarding a Borders coming to downtown?

EXCLUSIVE REPORTS

From the December 9, 2005 print edition



<A HREF="http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... html">SLDC picks projects for $32 million in tax credits</A>

Heather Cole



St. Louis Development Corp. (SLDC), the economic development agency for the city of St. Louis, decided in late November how to allocate $32 million of the $52 million in tax credits it was granted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in May 2004.



Six projects, ranging from loft developments to the acquisition of land for industrial development, will receive the credits through the SLDC.



The New Markets Tax Credits are being used as a carrot for Chicago-based developers Orchard Group Development and Joseph Freed Cos. to attract a national retailer like Borders bookstore to their $49 million Ely Walker Lofts project at 1520 Washington Ave. The credits are awarded to the project on the condition that the developers net such a retailer; the credits then would be used to offset the company's rent. The tax credits would reduce the risk for a national retailer to move into an area without a history of a specific type of business, said Jay Case, president of Orchard Group.





<A HREF="http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory4.html">>>> read more</A>

I read that in the print edition on Friday... let's hope Borders agrees that the tax credits would make a project worthwhile.

Would be great to have a boarders, but I will be picky and say that I would rather have it either on washington between Tucker and 14th or down in the OPO, helping to create a great downtown shopping district.

More on the federal tax credits as reported by Martin Van Der Werf of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch...



<A HREF="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... C4C8">City offers credits to attract Borders and give life to St. Louis Centre</A>

By Martin Van Der Werf

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

12/13/2005



$5 million was set aside for Orchard Development Group, owners of the building that Gold's Gym left behind. Mayor Francis Slay created anticipation in June when he noted on his Web site that Orchard was planning for a Borders in the building. But so far, the bookseller has not committed.



Crim says the tax credits could be used to subsidize a lease, so Borders or another "significant quality national retailer" would find downtown more attractive.