urbanSTL

Renovations of 801-5 and 813 North Second got before the Planning Commission on September 2nd. Renovation into office space, retail space and apartments are planned. Advantes Group is the developer. $4.3 Million development cost.

Landing streetscaping is pretty much finished. Ward burg garden is getting close. Tapatalk won’t let me upload more than one photo at a time so excuse the multiple posts

The relaid cobble stones and new sidewalks really help with the aesthetics down there. Glad to see that investment was made.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Nov 24, 2020

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, what exactly are the east-west streets paved with now, concrete paving "stones"? Or is that just concrete textured to look like pavers?

What is the status of Hoffman, Greenly, or Trader Lofts? They all seem to have sold and transferred, but I have not seen any permits issued (I could also be looking in the wrong area).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The new garden thing is nice but the view from
it is a an overgrown lot with bunch of junk on it and that fugly garage

dbInSouthCity wrote:The new garden thing is nice but the view from
it is a an overgrown lot with bunch of junk on it and that fugly garage

Was about to say the same thing.

Also while the street scape looks nice the inner perfectionist in me is wanting to have the paver band be the same width as the tree pit similar to that of wash ave. Still a nice touch and I am glad it got added.

Streets are a very welcome update.  Is Morgan updated? My sedan basically bottoms out constantly trying to get up the street.

The garden is still one of the dumbest things I've seen money spent on in a long time.

E/W streets (including Morgan) are now plain concrete. I've not seen any work being done on any of the planning building renos. Also speaking of the fugly garage, it's been completely fenced off for months now. Curious if it has become structurally unsound. 

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Nov 25, 2020

E/W streets (including Morgan) are now plain concrete. I've not seen any work being done on any of the planning building renos. Also speaking of the fugly garage, it's been completely fenced off for months now. Curious if it has become structurally unsound. 

1. I was told that all the planned buildings renovations (Greeley, Hoffman, Traders and 813 North 2nd) would all begin renovations at the same time. If true, that would be quite the hub of construction work down there all at once.
2. Pertaining to the above, I was also told work would start on those projects after sidewalks and the streets were fixed.
3. I believe that garage has become structurally unsound but I'm not 100% sure. Earlier this summer, they had the middle deck on the parking garage open for some cars. Maybe it has fallen into even more disrepair since then. 

Chris, believe Drury could have two significant impacts on city development if they would follow through, the Forest Park Southeast Kingshighway location, and the parcel on the Landing if they still own it.  I think someone or yourself that noted something might be in the works for FPSE/Kingshighway parcel.   

Any insight if Drury might still do something on the landing? or if they even still own the Landing parcel?   My pre-covid thought was that CVC convention expansion would make a Drury signature landing hotel/apartment proposal more desireable but then Covid came along and upended the whole convention, travel and hotel business.  However, the silver lining from a Covid vaccine is that Arch grounds will see some better numbers come this summer, XFL will be back and convention upgrades moving ahead will help city be more competitive on mid tier convention gatherings.   Maybe wishful thinking, but the Arch does seem more prevalent in marketing not necessarily tied to St. Louis itself/directly but when companies highlight national icons in their marketing.   

I sort of liked those blue street signs with the fleur de lis. These new black ones definitely look good with the red brick, though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

dredger wrote:Chris, believe Drury could have two significant impacts on city development if they would follow through, the Forest Park Southeast Kingshighway location, and the parcel on the Landing if they still own it.  I think someone or yourself that noted something might be in the works for FPSE/Kingshighway parcel.   

Any insight if Drury might still do something on the landing? or if they even still own the Landing parcel?   My pre-covid thought was that CVC convention expansion would make a Drury signature landing hotel/apartment proposal more desireable but then Covid came along and upended the whole convention, travel and hotel business.  However, the silver lining from a Covid vaccine is that Arch grounds will see some better numbers come this summer, XFL will be back and convention upgrades moving ahead will help city be more competitive on mid tier convention gatherings.   Maybe wishful thinking, but the Arch does seem more prevalent in marketing not necessarily tied to St. Louis itself/directly but when companies highlight national icons in their marketing.   

Just checked in on Drury updates and no major news yet in FPSE by Kingshighway. There are a few groups potentially interested in the sight b/c Drury has no plans as of right now to develop that land.

In other words, don't expect change soon. But also don't expect it will be a Drury development when something happens.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Chris, thanks as always for the pictures. The streets and sidewalks are looking much improved.

Nice images and a long awaited update to the infrastructure.  I still can't believe there's a feral cat colony over there.  And some lady was driving down there and feeding them multiple times a week a handful of years ago.  That's the kind of crap that brings this City down in an instant at the front doorstep to our most widely visited tourist trap park.

Still wish the park had been placed right at the trestle.  I doubt we see another development on the next parcel east.  But it's looking nice.  Hopefully it stays that way.

^There's a feral cat colony in downtown Columbia. (Or at least there was as long as I lived there.) You'd see the cats around dumpsters every now and then. Mostly black cats. It never did anyone any harm and vet-med folks at the university monitored it. I think they were working to spay or neuter the adults as they were able. That's the sort of thing you could keep tabs on. Monitor it to make sure it's healthy and not becoming a danger to anyone. There are even ways to vaccinate. (Bait traps, of a sort. I think there have been experiments with birth control distributed similarly.) But I fail to see why it would bother tourists. Genuine feral cats are generally pretty good at keeping out of sight. The cats you see on the street are more often the domesticated ones that are allowed to wander.

It bothers me as even a local because there's a colony of cats making a home on a pile of old cast iron on a vacant lot.  It looks like crap and it's on the front door to a supposedly top tourist attraction, civic gem, and public transit.  Take them to a shelter or something.  Or the lady can take them to her own home instead of compounding an eyesore in public view.

There are only like two cats (at least that I ever see). I believe they're fixed, so they won't be around all that much longer. Didn't they trap and relocate most of them a couple years ago?

There are a bunch of homeless people a couple blocks north along the river, as well as north of the dome.

In both cases, complaining about our unused space being utilized to help some living being survive is absurd. You want to build something there, fine, worry about whoever/whatever is using it.

At this point I would rather see this lot converted into well maintained surface parking instead of leaving it in its current state. 

Also does anybody know if they infrastructure upgrades  will eventually include Commercial St? It's not terrible but certainly has some problem areas in the brickwork.