urbanSTL

Plans are in the works for a 5 story building with 55 apartments plus commercial and office space at the corner of Manchester and Newstead (currently an empty lot): Park Central Development blog post. The rendering is taken from the Park Central packet:



No mention of a timeline, but they are seeking tax abatement at a meeting on Tuesday, so hopefully they are planning to begin soon.

The neighborhood rumor is that they are building a large surface parking lot on Swan, possibly involving demolition of it's north side just west of Newstead. A renter in one of the few remaining occupied homes told me that his landlord was just bought out by the Gills a couple of weeks ago and his 2 year lease is now in jeopardy.

Don't get me wrong, this new development is awesome and very exciting, but it may continue to displace existing residents who have been working hard to make the neighborhood a better place.

Slightly off topic, does anyone know much about the Dan Scott case? http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crim ... 5e636.html

^Interesting and disappointing. According to the Park Central packet, a parking plan may be required in exchange for tax abatement. I hadn't heard about the proposed demolitions, but there have been rumors that the Gills are advocates of building surface lots south of Manchester to serve their residential and commercial properties.

The Grove and CWE are really taking off. I cant imagine what kind of proposals we would be getting in a booming economy.

The massing of the new building is great; sure hope they don't muck it up with cheap materials.

rbeedee wrote:Plans are in the works for a 5 story building with 55 apartments plus commercial and office space at the corner of Manchester and Newstead (currently an empty lot): Park Central Development blog post. The rendering is taken from the Park Central packet:



No mention of a timeline, but they are seeking tax abatement at a meeting on Tuesday, so hopefully they are planning to begin soon.

That... looks pretty cool - looking at Swan - there is a large lot and really rough 1 story frame house to the south of this lot - if those go I will shed no tears, there are some more worthy brick buildings flanking the lot and frame house that would be nice to keep

framer wrote:sure hope they don't muck it up with cheap materials.

The local Development Corporation, Park Central, said the following in the application for tax abatement:

Park Central Recommendation: Support of 10-Year Tax Abatement with the following conditions:
*The building’s façade should include high quality materials and not the use of Dryvit.

I do hope they are not trying to demolish the apartment building directly south on Newstead, it's a very unique design (3 walk up four families attached to one another).

^I agree. There is already two empty lots at the corner of Swan and Newstead. Demolishing that building for parking would add a third. Way too excessive. There's plenty of street parking available in that area

How many spots would fit behind the building at Newstead and Swan? Or the NE corner? That plus the street and there's plenty. Don't give tax abatement is there's demo.

I'm pretty excited, also the parking is being required since there are not enough spots for the residential and commercial tenants with the current parking formula. There needs to be one spot for every unit in residential I believe. Wish they could start it asap!

inTheGrove wrote:the current parking formula

And here we have the source of the problem.

quincunx wrote:

inTheGrove wrote:the current parking formula

And here we have the source of the problem.

Well right now parking is needed since people still mostly drive cars in STL and parking in the grove becomes a major pane during peak times on weekends and ect. IMO

Subsurface garages are very expensive.

inTheGrove wrote:Well right now parking is needed since people still mostly drive cars in STL and parking in the grove becomes a major pane during peak times on weekends and ect. IMO

Is the Family Care Health Center parking lot open on nights and weekends?

Are the apt dwellers likely all to have cars? What's magical about the current parking minimums? They're a one-size-fits-all that's stiffing the rebirth of our neighborhoods.

PD story

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... 35a86.html

parking in the grove becomes a major pane during peak times on weekends and ect. IMO

Does it? Maybe parking on Manchester becomes a pain, but I'm pretty confident there's plenty of parking a block north or south of Manchester even on the busier weekends. It's not like it's CWE.

You don't tear down a usable residential building for parking, especially one that is currently occupied. That reduces the net residents you add to a neighborhood.

quincunx wrote:

inTheGrove wrote:Well right now parking is needed since people still mostly drive cars in STL and parking in the grove becomes a major pane during peak times on weekends and ect. IMO

Is the Family Care Health Center parking lot open on nights and weekends?

No it is gated and locked, and I think I have seen private security check it at times.....

I would not walk on that side on Manchester late at night as of yet, I say that as a current resident.

What would be a waste is losing either due to our parking fetish.,

inTheGrove wrote:

quincunx wrote:Is the Family Care Health Center parking lot open on nights and weekends?

No it is gated and locked, and I think I have seen private security check it at times.....

I would not walk on that side on Manchester late at night as of yet, I say that as a current resident.

How about Mills pays part of security and maintenance in exchange for apt residents being able to use the lot? Everybody wins including the neighborhood. Done.

Wouldn't you rather have the 64 than the 44? Using our example, you've just given up 20 potential residents that spend money and pay taxes. All for some parking spaces that produce nothing. I don't think you need to sacrifice that potential when there's plenty available parking.

Well, I guess that answers the question about what the Gills have been up to. This is a major infill project, and looks much better than Aventura. I think this is really going to spur some additional development.

This looks really exciting.