Don't forget that you St. Mary's hospital, SSM, literally down the street on Clayton. I think it is a cause and effect of location (think Barnes Jewish & Childerns, Forest Park, SLU & Cardinals Childern Hospital, and St. Mary's) and the parent company's financial issues. In other words, only a outside group with shady financial background was willing to make a bet on Forest Park.

I think their will be some issues in West County at some point in regards to St. John's Mercy, Mo Baptist Hospital, Des Peres Hospital and the new St. Joe's hospital. A lot of beds and building boom concentrated in a specific geographic location.

The bigger issue of all this, I think its going to take both a significant population growth on top of the aging curve to keep all teh current hospitals open let alone fill all the new beds that have been built. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the population growth and the first victims have been city hospitals.

Nothing new here
St Anthony's was formerly at Grand and Chippewa, DePaul at N Kingshighway and Highland, St Luke's at Delmar and Belt, St John's was somewhere in the mass of buildings that is Barnes Jewish.
Of course, earlier they were all further east.

Don't have a picture, but there is a For Sale sign and the intersection of Oakland and Hampton. I saw it driving west on Oakland.

I imagine that the site would be tough to redevelop considering the building were built and have specific purpose. Their is a need for only so much medical office space and see the hospital not only losing out on a shriking demograph but being the weakest of three that also included BJC and SSM who literally have hospitals down the street. I hate to say it, but the parking garage is a plus at the moment.

In that context, Like what Daron is thinking. How can this space/location be used outside the context of more condo's as I rather see projects go forward in CWE or a new tower built at Lindell & Kingshighway or Highlands fill out and more in tune with the park.

Another thought that has always crossed my mind when jogging in Forest Park, seeing the city forest greenhouses moved across the freeway and developed with an expanded SLCC Forest Park program. Forest Park, existing institutions inside and around the Park, and the neighborhoods provide some truly unique opportunities to continue going forward.

Or you could always just return it to being parkland. Between BJC and the Kingshighway and Hampton interchange rebuild, that might end up as a net wash in park acreage.

DaronDierkes wrote: Perhaps this is a candidate for the 'What Should Be' project. I think it'd be great if the Zoo could take ownership of the Hampton Concourse and put some of their more urban functions in Dogtown in partnership with a university or SLCC perhaps.

Or put parking in a structure on that side of the highway, and turn the current Zoo parking lots back into parkland or Zooland.

Condos? Really? Aren't the ones in Dogtown still hurting for tenants?

^I think the vet hospital is a fantastic idea. A state of the art veterinary hospital/school that caters to literally all manner of animals would be an amazing asset to have.

Many people have brought up the idea of a world class aquarium in the city. The South Lot would be an amazing place IMHO for this exact thing. Perfect location, no highway noise issues for the animals (would in fact, abate the noise), with the chance to create an amazing world class structure with unbeatable highway visibility. Build a garage across the highway as we are talking about, or further West towards Skinker (easier access to the garage with less traffic in the park). End result would be one of the more impressive cultural assets in America, IMO.

FUNDING! FUNDING!

I am wondering if an idea for the site could be better integrated with its surroundings....


Also, there are many areas for opportunity near the site.


Overall, I think there could be both an animal hospital and aquarium on the site. Part of the hospital and the east garage will likely have to come down. It might be neat to keep the original Deaconess College of Nursing Building and use it for the hospital and then use the rest of the site for the aquarium. It might be feasible to make it into some sort of co-op.

Would be a Killer spot for an aquarium...Nestled in a very cool urban neighborhood right across from Forest Park and great highway access...It's not right on a MetroLink stop but could be credibly part of the Forest Park Shuttle Bus...

One of the Home Depot founders paid for and built a $220 million aquarium off Centennial Olympic park in Downtown Atlanta, what, 3 or 4 years ago...The place has one problem...It's too popular...You seriously gotta hit the place at opening or closing...

Could you imagine being able to somehow make a large tank visible from the outside?? Even lit up at night for a period of time......HOw cool would it be to see a gigantor whale fish swimming along doing his thing as you pass by on the highway........

FPH merged with St. Alexius in 2010.

Forest Park Hospital is still operating an Emergency Room, psychiatric services, and using a bit of office space in that location. The rest of their services have been moved to St. Alexis on south Broadway, which is owned by the same Florida company Success Healthcare. (A hospital management / investment co) The hospital was sold in 2004 and again in 2008 to its current owner. In 2005 the facilities / land were sold to an Illinois company, while a company called Argilla Healthcare continued operations until they sold to the current owner. I think the two primary factors in the reduction of services at this location were unpaid ER visits, but far more importantly, bad investments by the parent company, which preempted planned investment / remodeling of the FP Hospital. So currently, if I understand correctly, the property is owned by one company and operated, in its limited state, by another company.

Through the last decade the hospital was apparently profitable, but there are credible accusations that the profits were diverted to prop up other hospitals owned by Argilla HC. Last year about 300 employees were laid off by Success HC when services were consolidated.

So you have a complicated and unfortunate picture. Its not at all likely that the current owner is going to expand services in the near future, especially given the extra capacity they have at the St. Alexis location.

My doctor used to be there, and I got my rabies vaccination there, but that's a different story.

The north side of the building has some really amazing statuary, and the tower is a neighborhood landmark visible for miles. I'm not sure what the best path is for the property at the moment. There was an occupancy permit approved in Aug. of 2010 for dorms, classrooms & office space for a nursing school (unsure which one) - but maybe that is a path forward for the property - if smaller healthcare or educational tenets can start to use some of the available space. I also love the idea of a vet hospital!

Scott Ogilvie
Candidate for Alderman Ward 24
ward24stl.com

They need to level it and build some awesome condos. I'm sorry, but this is a prime example of a building, that while it has some historic value, is better left to the demolition experts for the sake of City progress. This is Grade A St. Louis real estate. Look how much of this campus swallows up one of the coolest parts of Dogtown/Clayton.

Of course, as it is privately owned, this is all nothing but an awesome pipe dream.

Bonus: this place is right across the street from Mike Talayna's Juke Box!