Mercedes-Benz of St. Louis- Hampton Ave. @ Clayton Ave.

chesterfieldkid03 · PostSep 03, 2012#12012-09-03T00:15+00:00

I am hearing that Tri Star Mercedes Benz will be moving from Ellisville to the former FOX 2 KTVI site at Hampton and Berthold Avenue. It is scheduled to go in front of the TIF committee on September 12th.

Before moving to Ellisville around 1995, TRI Star was located on Market Street in downtown where the FBI building is now.

moorlander · PostSep 03, 2012#22012-09-03T02:52+00:00

sweet

Alex Ihnen · PostSep 04, 2012#32012-09-04T16:06+00:00

A TIF for moving a car dealer to a prominent space next to a successfully developed mid-rise office and residential?

ward24 · PostSep 04, 2012#42012-09-04T16:25+00:00

It's not my ward, and what I know is relatively minimal, but the two wings of the structure front both the Berthold / Hampton & Berthold / Clayton intersections. Sort of a modern two story glass showroom look (that's not really confirmed) with a single tier parking structure on the east of the property. First blush, despite being a car-dealership, its a much more urban building than what is currently on the site. If memory serves, the TIF would cover something like $2 million / 18% of construction cost.

On the flip side, yes, its just shuffling the chairs regionally, but its encouraging that a luxury dealership wants to relocate to this location over staying in Ellisville, with ~ $12 million in new construction.

Scott Ogilvie

Alex Ihnen · PostSep 04, 2012#52012-09-04T16:42+00:00

^ So is a $2M TIF for a luxury car dealer a good idea for the city?

wabash · PostSep 04, 2012#62012-09-04T17:17+00:00

^Good question.

I wonder what kind of annual sales a TriStar Motors racks up, and what amount of resulting sales tax will go to the city.

I think this would be the only luxury car dealership within the city limits, which is a good development.

Alex Ihnen · PostSep 04, 2012#72012-09-04T17:27+00:00

^ Yes, it would be. I can see how it would make a good impression on a visitor - too see a luxury car dealer at Hampton/40 - it would present an image of prosperity/luxury for the area.

gone corporate · PostSep 04, 2012#82012-09-04T17:44+00:00

Sounds like a great location for both the dealership and the City.

That TriStar wants to locate here says that there is enough demographic pull of potential consumers within a reasonable geographic area from the site (as well as commuters along 64/40), signaling that incomes for proximately-located residents & workers is high enough to attract nearby Mercedes-Benz consumers. This should increase market strength in the area and could further increase the confidence of other new higher-end products, from standard retail shopping to real estate developers seeking newer projects nearby.

It also should signal to the regular County-based commuters along 64/40, as well as visitors to Forest Park (Muny, Zoo, etc.), that this portion of the City can meet their potential demands for higher end product lines and could encourage potential new residents to further consider the City.

I'd say this should be worth the $2M TIF.

Q: Any renderings out there that can be uploaded?

quincunx · PostSep 04, 2012#92012-09-04T18:07+00:00

Why does it need a TIF? The site's advantages add plenty of value. I had higher hopes for this site. I'll take it over a TIF-fueled CVS.

flipz · PostSep 04, 2012#102012-09-04T18:14+00:00

I don't know the tax code for dealerships but wouldn't they also pay a lot of property tax on inventory?

justme123 · PostSep 04, 2012#112012-09-04T20:01+00:00

wabash wrote:I wonder what kind of annual sales a TriStar Motors racks up, and what amount of resulting sales tax will go to the city.

I think this would be the only luxury car dealership within the city limits, which is a good development.

It was my understanding that car dealerships weren't necessarily "attractive" to municipalities because they don't directly generate sales tax because the sales tax on new vehicles is based on the buyer's residence, not where the car was purchased.

Having said that, I agree that this is a good development. I've only been by the Tri-Star location in Ellisville a few times, but it always seemed like a weird location to me. It's up on a "hill" - sort of - along Manchester, with the inventory, etc., not really visible from the street....not that a Mercedes is a drive-by, impulse purchase....

RuskiSTL · PostSep 09, 2012#122012-09-09T16:45+00:00

I think this would be a huge image win, the posters on STLtoday would sh*t bricks lol. That being said with TIF money being involved I think we need to see renderings before getting too excited. Also, do you all think a dealership makes the hospital redevelopment more likely? And with the Highlands new residential development thats been announced, is this area likely to become too suburban/disconnected?

dredger · PostSep 10, 2012#132012-09-10T04:47+00:00

^ Don't really think this developement willl have any impact on the hospital development as I believe the property is already part of a disjointed/disconnected property that fronts the freeway with Highlands, FP Community College, Science Center, so on.

What would be nice is the backside properties start developing with some street grid develpment back together. Replace some of the tired light industrial behind Science Center and FP Community College with dense residential

It will also be interesting once the zoo secure the hospital ground how things go. I think the rate of development will be much quicker with an institution that has plenty of experience securing funds/financing as well as managing multi million dollars projects through completion. The question is, what direction do the take with the property. An extension of the what is already east of Hampton or a legitamite attempt to blend into its current surroundings? Hopefully the latter as I hope the zoo is willing to give up some of the odd shape pieces for infill instead of a surface parking lot agenda.

bchao524 · PostOct 05, 2012#142012-10-05T13:10+00:00

The Post-Dispatch had an article on this development today. Sounds like TIF commission approved it in September, and it is now waiting for final approval which should happen by the end of the year. Plans are for construction to begin in April with completion a year later.

Some good excerpts:

The dealer wants "to build a 'uniquely urban' dealership south of Forest Park."

"TriStar’s plan calls for a two-level, largely glass showroom next to the sidewalk on Clayton Avenue. Two levels of parking would be provided for customers, employees and the inventory of cars for sale."

"Hennekes said the company wants TriStar to adopt the “autohaus look,” a Mercedes program that calls for dealerships worldwide to have buildings with lots of glass, blue structural elements and specific interior colors and tiles."

"Mercedes officials now want a dealer nearer the urban core because of its higher household income, Hennekes (the dealer) said. 'Now I guess the demographics have changed, and Mercedes feels they need to be closer to the city,' he said."

Read the article here: http://goo.gl/IbSRY

stlhistory · PostOct 05, 2012#152012-10-05T14:24+00:00

I for one am happy about the built to the sidewalk nature of the development, but I wish it were built to the Hampton side instead of the Clayton side. Rows of cars on Hampton aren't very conducive to remaking it into a more urban avenue.

roger wyoming II · PostOct 05, 2012#162012-10-05T15:25+00:00

Overall this looks like a winner.... a luxury brand with an attractive building going into a highly visible but rather difficult parcel of land is not bad. And I think that if the dealership is successful, it might cause other high-end retailers to take a look at coming into the city.

Bart Harley Jarvis · PostOct 05, 2012#172012-10-05T16:13+00:00

stlhistory wrote:I for one am happy about the built to the sidewalk nature of the development, but I wish it were built to the Hampton side instead of the Clayton side. Rows of cars on Hampton aren't very conducive to remaking it into a more urban avenue.

I can only hope the relocation of a nice car dealership will expedite the process of repaving Hampton. GD that's a bumpy stretch of road from 64 down to Chippewa.

moorlander · PostOct 05, 2012#182012-10-05T16:50+00:00

Is the Hardee's part of this deal. This property just doesn't seem large enough for 45k sq ft building, garage, and car lot.....

threeonefour · PostOct 05, 2012#192012-10-05T18:47+00:00

I think this is great news for St. Louis. And it shows that while the region's wealth has spread out along the Central Corridor through west St. Louis County and into St. Charles County (where Plaza Motors of St. Charles operates a Mercedes-Benz dealer in O'Fallon, interestingly enough), there is still a large concentration of high-income residences in the City of St. Louis portion of the Central Corridor as well as adjacent suburbs like Clayton and University City.

Now I just wish we'd see more dealers follow suit. Apparently Mercedes-Benz wanted to be in the city, so that's a great sign. BMW and Mini have built new facilities not that far west of the city on Hanley Road in Maplewood. And the only other new car dealers in the city are McMahon Ford, Don Brown Chevrolet, and Ackerman Toyota-Scion along the old South Kingshighway New Car Row. (Other new car dealers in the city were recently victims of downsizing within the American auto industry, as evidenced by the loss of Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, and Pontiac dealerships in the last few years.)

I just wish Volkswagen would insist on a city location as well. I bought my VW at Bommarito and it's a bit of a drive to get it serviced!

This is also a great use of the former Fox 2 KTVI site in my opinion. Here's today's P-D article with more details:

ST. LOUIS • After nearly two decades, the city of St. Louis is getting its Mercedes-Benz dealership back.

TriStar Imports, a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Ellisville, plans to abandon a stretch of strip malls and other dealers to build a "uniquely urban" dealership just south of Forest Park.

If that sounds counterintuitive — the migration of regional wealth has generally headed the opposite direction — the move makes business sense to TriStar owners on multiple fronts, even at greater cost than a renovation in Ellisville.

TriStar plans an $11.7 million dealership on a smaller urban footprint, requiring the construction of a parking garage, on the former KTVI-TV site near Hampton and Clayton avenues. The cost would include demolition of the KTVI building and construction of a 45,000-square-foot showroom, service area, office building and parking structure.

The move adds up, in part, because of $2.2 million in tax-increment financing from the city of St. Louis, an amount close to the purchase cost of the land. But the move also grows out of a desire to locate the luxury dealer more centrally in the region, with easy visibility and access to its main artery, Highway 40 (Interstate 64), said TriStar President said Tom Hennekes.

Continue reading...

PostOct 05, 2012#202012-10-05T18:57+00:00

Here's an example of the Mercedes-Benz 'Autohaus' showroom design in Bellevue, Wash. I assume this will be configured to front the street to some extent on the site at Hampton, Clayton, and Berthold avenues:

And here is Isringhausen Mercedes-Benz in downtown Springfield, Illinois. The structure was built in the late 1980s and renovated two years ago. The blue exterior elements and signage were added as part of the Autohaus Project, and the interior was renovated extensively, but the exterior was otherwise unaltered.

As you can see, it is built up to the sidewalk along Jefferson Avenue, and it connects to adjacent Porsche (Jefferson Avenue at Second Street) and BMW (Madison Avenue at Second Street) showrooms that are much more modern in outward appearance and not quite as well oriented to the street as the M-B showroom. It's a really nice complex, though, and it really anchors that part of Downtown Springfield well even with two surface lots for new and pre-owned inventory.

For the new Tri-Star showroom, I expect there may be a small asphalt lot to display some new cars, but the bulk of inventory and/or cars in for service will probably be in the parking structure, not unlike the current Mini of St. Louis showroom (which, oddly enough, will be replaced with a more sprawling complex in Maplewood soon).

roger wyoming II · PostOct 05, 2012#212012-10-05T19:01+00:00

moorlander wrote:Is the Hardee's part of this deal. This property just doesn't seem large enough for 45k sq ft building, garage, and car lot.....

The Hardees is only part of the deal in the sense that the new workers will have easy access to grotesque Man-Burgers for lunch!

quincunx · PostOct 06, 2012#222012-10-06T01:33+00:00

Hope we see a site plan soon. I also hope they widen the sidewalk on Hampton. Walking along Hampton is terrifying!

Mark Groth · PostOct 06, 2012#232012-10-06T13:51+00:00

easy access to grotesque Man-Burgers

That is hilarious!

PostFeb 27, 2013#242013-02-27T21:05+00:00

I'm still bummed Fox 2 moved to the burbs, but it is good to see a better use for their former location at Berthold and Hampton. Demo underway:
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/t ... 7bbf5.html

Presbyterian · PostMay 18, 2013#252013-05-18T15:27+00:00

I noticed that the building permit application fom last November has still not been issued. Permits for demolition and grading were issued, but not for construction. Six months is a long time. Anybody know the story?