urbanSTL

Downtown2007 wrote:They didnt do their research. We lost Dillards.

True enough, and we also lost Scruggs Vandervoort & Barney in 1967. But I think they were simply pointing out that St. Louis is still among a small and select group of cities that has at least one traditional department store left in its downtown. Even vibrant cities like San Francisco and smaller metro areas like Minneapolis and Indianapolis that have multiple downtown department stores have lost major retailers amid all of the consolidations that have taken place in retail over the last 20 or 30 years. So it's significant that St. Louis still has one store remaining, especially when you consider the many major cities like Atlanta, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Detroit that no longer have a traditional downtown department store.



Oh, and JMedwick, I like the way you think about the block immediately south of Macy's. I'd love to see a Class A office tower there eventually.

Developers are now doing due diligence for a sale of the Railway Exchange Building. More from the Building Blocks Blog at the PD.

The planned sale of the Macy’s building in downtown St. Louis means the department store will remain, a company spokeswoman said this morning.



Although the store will shrink to three from seven floors, what remains will be remodeled after the sale closes in January, said Macy’s spokeswoman Sharon Bateman.



The city’s tax-increment financing commission reviewed the project this morning.



Local developers Rick Yackey and Bill and Brian Bruce plan to buy the building and reconfigure Macy’s to occupy 125,000 square feet on the building’s first three floors. Two floors of Macy’s office space on the upper floors will also be preserved. The new owners plan to lease the remainder of the building for office and other non-residential uses.

JMedwick wrote:Not sure whether I like the idea of using the building largely for non-residential. I wonder whether that is the short term plan, with the long term plan being a transition to residential.



No mention in the article of whether the garage and parking lot on the south side of Olive are included in the transaction.

In the Biz Journal, it mentions that the garage would be receiving renovations as well. I wouldn't worry about the "non-residential" aspect - if they bring in some office tenants, it would be great for that part of downtown.

JMedwick wrote:Not sure whether I like the idea of using the building largely for non-residential. I wonder whether that is the short term plan, with the long term plan being a transition to residential.

Like DeBaliviere, I'm not concerned about the Railway Exchange Building being re-purposed for non-residential tenants. Like you, however, I really would have liked for the developer to make the upper floors residential.



Once again, there is a missed opportunity to create residential density in this part of downtown that desperately needs it. First, we learn that Pyramid's original plans to convert St. Louis Centre into The Concord, which would have been mostly residential, have been stripped down to a parking garage serving 600 Washington (and presumably, Thompson Coburn in the US Bank Building). Now the vast space above what will become a shrunken Macy's store won't be residential after all. Like DeBaliviere, I think that's okay and still quite good for downtown, but I think that part of downtown really needs more residential to maximize its potential.



Finally, I really hope Macy's will include some sort of restaurant and/or auditorium space in the downsized store so they can continue to host Breakfast with Santa and other holiday special events. We've taken our son each year Macy's has offered it, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It ain't no Santaland, but it recaptures some of the magic and turns on a new generation of kids to what has become an extremely rare (and sadly, still endangered) asset- the traditional downtown department store.

ThreefourOne, I don't thinkg this is a loss opportunity for more residential development when downtown has a stalled Park Pacific, next Cupples Warehouse and Dillard/Laural still waiting in the wings plus plenty of infill space available. Instead, getting 850 lost jobs back downtown into the building should be the priority. It might also convince a person or two to move downtown if they have a job downtown.

^ You may be right, and certainly, bringing more jobs downtown would certainly help the area (and the downsized Macy's underneath).



I'm not quite sure where the developers will find tenants that will make up for the jobs lost when Macy's eliminated the Macy's Midwest division (850 jobs were cut then, and that figure goes well over 1,000 when May Company jobs before the initial round of cuts are taken into account). I trust that they will eventually find tenants, and I'm glad the sale is moving forward as planned, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the opportunity to find new tenants given current economic conditions regionally and nationally.



And while I suppose it might be just as difficult, or maybe even harder, to market residential space there in this economy, I was just under the assumption that the office space above Macy's wasn't the most attractive option for many businesses. I was a kindergartner when I was last on the upper floors of the Railway Exchange, and that was 30 years ago, but I remember the offices had very low ceilings, and on the highest levels, the floorplates are significantly smaller if I recall correctly. That's no deal breaker, especially if the renovation of the space turns out well and the price is right, but I just assumed it might make a better space for residential based on my foggy memory of the upper levels of the building.



Finally, downtown could use more residential east of the Old Post Office. For now, besides The Marquette and whatever the Mansion House complex is now called, there's a void between the OPO and Memorial Drive, Market Street and Washington Avenue. When The Alexa, The Laurel, (and hopefully, the Arcade) are renovated, that should bring at least 1,000 new residents into the area which will help fill the void.



That said, if the Railway Exchange can be successfully converted into an attractive commercial property again, that will still be quite good for Macy's and for downtown.

^

You're right - I remember interviewing with May right out of college and thinking the same thing about the low ceilings. I wonder if that's just the way the building is, or if it had more to do with the way May finished their office space. Maybe a good design firm could reconfigure things and make the space feel more open.

bikin'_man wrote:do you remember if it had the ceiling tiles or drywall on the ceiling? that's the cheap way of getting an old building modernized. i bet you that it has something in the range of a 10' floor to floor height.

It had tiles like you would see in someone's basement. Or directly above my head here in my office.

MACY'S FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS, ARRIVAL OF SANTA CLAUS AND HOLIDAY WINDOWS UNVEILED FRIDAY NOVEMBER 20



11/20/2009



Festival of Lights Celebration at Keiner Plaza and the arrival of Macy's Santa Claus 4:30 p.m.

Macy's Downtown St. Louis, 6:30pm to 9:00 p.m. Holiday Open House

Join Macy's for a special night of celebration. There's magic and excitement on all 7 floors. Enjoy Radio Disney, a performance from the Nutcracker performed by the St. Louis Ballet, Frilly and Miller, Santa Claus on the 3rd floor and much more!



12/05/2009 - 12/19/2009

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA AT MACY'S

Breakfast with Santa at Macy's Downtown St. Louis

6th Floor

December 5, 12 and 19 - 9am

December 6 and 13- 10am



Santa Claus is coming to town! Join us at Macy's Downtown St. Louis for a memorable visit with Santa as you and your family enjoy a taste breakfast with the jolly guy. Also delight in a performance and sing-along with Frilly and Miller. Remember to bring your camera for photos with Santa. Tickets are $10 per person, plus tax. Free holiday parking is available with validation for Macy's guests. Seating is limited. Please call 1.800.206.1995 and reserve your space at the table.



This event always sells out fast - so don't wait!

matguy70 wrote:The place was more packed than last year... an incredible crowd downtown tonight. The windows are new this year - mostly clothing and merchandise holiday designs - almost every window is now decorated which is nice and the west side windows are animated - but not the same as years before - bigger animations.

The store looks more fabulous than ever... the Holiday Lane and Santa area are on 3 and completely together which is much better - the ground floor looks awesome and they have added a John Pils gallery and shop on the first floor too. The restaurants were even open til 9 tonight as well. Like I said, the place was packed. The line for santa tonight was nearly an hour long at times.

That's exciting, but my problem is, where are all these people during the rest of the year? Not shopping at downtown Macy's. Not eating at downtown restaurants. Not living downtown. Not supporting downtown businesses during the rest of the year.

You don't know that ^



Maybe there all not there at the same time.

audioguy09 wrote:That's exciting, but my problem is, where are all these people during the rest of the year? Not shopping at downtown Macy's. Not eating at downtown restaurants. Not living downtown. Not supporting downtown businesses during the rest of the year.

Events like this show that people want to have reasons to come downtown. Maybe Macy's should hold more special events.

DeBaliviere wrote:Events like this show that people want to have reasons to come downtown. Maybe Macy's should hold more special events.

I've been wondering about this ever since Macy's brought back Breakfast with Santa and other holiday-related events four years ago (after they acquired May Company in 2005, but before they retired the Famous-Barr name in 2006). They make a strong effort during the holidays, and they also did so for the All-Star Game earlier this year and the Final Four in 2005. But the rest of the time, there's not much of an effort made to attract suburban shoppers. And meanwhile, celebrities and designers make their guest appearances at suburban stores, typically the West County Center and Saint Louis Galleria locations. Why not downtown?



I also wonder what will become of Breakfast with Santa after this year, as Macy's plans to downsize the store to three floors in early 2010. Papa Fabarre's is too small and not configurated to hold such an event, and I can't see them creating a space within the remaining floors to accommodate events like this either. I still don't know how they're going to address the fourth floor skybridge and its relation to a three-story store either. So I look forward to this year's holiday festivities, but I wonder what changes Macy's will make for the 2010 holiday shopping season.



BTW, we went to see the lights Friday night and had a great time. We got there a bit late, so we simply drove around Kiener Plaza to see the lights and the fireworks that followed. The only trouble was, Pine and Seventh streets were blocked, so I could not enter the Macy's garage after the festivities at Kiener Plaza ended.



I wasn't surprised by the street closure, as I knew there was a procession toward Macy's. However, the streets were still blocked more than 20 minutes after the Kiener event concluded. I got tired of driving around in circles, and I saw no police in the area, so I simply parked my car parallel to the barricades, moved a couple of sawhorses blocking one lane on Pine Street, and then I entered the Macy's garage with no trouble at all. People behind me followed my lead- I even had a lady thank me as I was looking at the display windows with my son outside of the store.



Great event, but the next time, they might want to get rid of those barricades a bit sooner.

ThreeOneFour wrote:I also wonder what will become of Breakfast with Santa after this year, as Macy's plans to downsize the store to three floors in early 2010. Papa Fabarre's is too small and not configurated to hold such an event, and I can't see them creating a space within the remaining floors to accommodate events like this either. I still don't know how they're going to address the fourth floor skybridge and its relation to a three-story store either. So I look forward to this year's holiday festivities, but I wonder what changes Macy's will make for the 2010 holiday shopping season.

That's a good question. I wonder if the St. Louis Room will be retained in some fashion, maybe as a space for event rentals, operated independently of Macy's.

Bev Shea is the General Manager of the Downtown Macy's and is very receptive to customers and ideas.

The Downtown MAcy's had cooking shows twice a month since Culinaria opened - they did them in conjunction with Culinaria and advertised it at both stores and online under "events".... not sure where else though.



They have also had fashion shows in conjunction with Fashion Week in STL. So I know they have tried doing some events throughout the year at the store.



Any ideas? Post em and also recommend them to Bev at the store.



The store does look jazzy for the holiday season. The windows are nice too - I am glad Bev got almost all the windows decorated now... even if some are a little smaller windows... just glad to see. I am sure the new renovations will add more visual pleasing to the store after January.

From what I understand is that Macy's will open the store more to the streetside to create more of a street level eye candy - when the store went inside to the dreaded STL Centre - they lost a lot of the lack luster store front appearance.

JMedwick wrote:Wouldn't be unreasonable to figure a 4 story layout with the store on floors 1-3 and offices/ event space on the 4th floor.

Macy's has been pretty ambiguous about the details of the renovation, but this makes the most sense.

After school yesterday, my 9 y/o and I went for a downtown walk. Parked over by Mercury at 11th and Spruce, stopped by the statues outside of Busch then headed over to the Old Courthouse. After that we decided to check out Macy's and their Christmas display. No Christmas display. Oh well, we picked up some clothes for her at a greatly discounted price then headed over to The Dubliner for dinner before walking back to the car.



It's hard to understand how Macy's stays open with as few customers as I saw in that place this time of year.

The other day I thought I would go check out the restaurant scene in Macys for lunch. The restaurant on the third floor had the most appallingly strong odor of uncleaned grease-trap I have ever smelled; I did not even sit down. The restaurant on the 6th floor looked like a cafeteria at a nursing home, minus the windows. Depressing. I did not even sit down.

Look folks, you can't just walk into Macys downtown on a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday and expect to see droves of people - Downtown St. Louis is still getting a weekend presence and weekdays are the real "shopping" times for the work force downtown. Lunchtime and early mornings seem to be the "crowd" times at store.

Now as for the restaurants, yes, they ARE old - very - infact teh 3rd floor Papa's is an institution because of the decor in a lot of ways - not to mention a consistent menu which includes serving up French Onion Soup (Famous Barrs recipe) the only place in town to still get it.

The St. Louis Room is a cafeteria and always has been - the decor is so 1970-80's but it is CLEAN and friendly. The food is very good at both of the restaurants. What did you expect in a department store restuarant. have you ever been in any department store restaurant in a downtown store anywhere? This is not to mention Saks and Nieman's uppity overpriced snotty ass cafes.



Onto the decorations... Did you walk the windows - which in my opionion - are the best in years. The train window - a standard. The animated windows on the west side are nice - the decor and clothing windows (maybe not for kids so much) but nice too. The 3rd floor Childrens area has Santa's North Pole. It isn't like the northpoles we use to see in 1970's or 80's around the country - but it isn't bad. The trim a tree section on the 3rd floor is also pretty nice. The decorations throughout the store look nice too. - So I am not sure what you were expecting. In fact, I think Macy's downtown Santa area is much nicer than most of the malls (except Galleria) ... or it's about what they do nowadays.



My 2 cents.