Since 1998, North St. Louis has seen four new shopping centers completed - Schnucks City Plaza, Roberts Village, Fairground Plaza, and MLK Plaza. A fifth retail center is proposed by Koman Properties for I-70 & Goodfellow (Army Ammunitions site), which would include a Home Depot.



Many other storefronts and commercial buildings have been renovated, and new smaller retail centers have been built over recent years.



MLK Plaza is entering its 3rd phase of development after experiencing high lease rates for the previous phases.



MLK Plaza (Phase III)

This new 10,500 square foot development will add to the existing 65,000 development located at the intersection of Grand Avenue, Page Avenue, and Martin Luther King Boulevard in North St. Louis City.



-Phase I completed in 2003 (100% leased)

-Phase II completed in 2003 (100% leased)

-Phase III will be completed in 2005

-Phase IV is being developed.





Phase I



Link: MLK Plaza Leasing Brochure

Nice!



Isn't there a plan being developed to bring the commercial strip of MLK Blvd. back to life? I don't get to that area often, but I remember there being tons of vacant, historic commerical buildings in that area. With the right mix of tenants and surrounding housing, it could be a really vibrant area again.

I think the city was talking about a streetscape plan. I haven't heard anymore about it since it was announced. Anyone have any news?



This just goes to show that retail can do well on the north side. Like everything alse up there, it just has to be given a chance.

I don't know why anyone would think retail couldn't do well in north St. Louis - especially when northsiders often travel to the southside or county to shop.



Koman, who is white, is very adamant about building retail in north St. Louis, which is good. Koman has spoken candidly about how difficult it was to get large retailers into north St. Louis or predominately black areas because of negative perceptions retailers (or the people who run them) have about predominately black neighborhoods. It is incredible.



The Save-A-Lot in MLK Plaza has the highest sales volume in the region.



Also, check out the radius sheet in the link.



One a different note, while Save-A-Lot is not my first choice of grocers, they are much, much better than Aldi.

Is there still plans to bring a Home Depot to the north side? That would be huge.



It's really unfortunate that certain members of the community persuaded Magic Johnson's development company from doing business in St. Louis. While I understand why they are upset, I think their protest was misguided.



I have to think that north side retail development would be a lot further along if Magic were involved.

Yes, last I heard, the first phase of development at the old <A HREF="http://www.urbanstl.com/viewtopic.php?t=150">Army Ammunition Plant Site</A> will include a shopping center anchored by a Home Depot.

I think the developments taking place on the North Side are wonderful and that the investment shows a confidence in at least a modest North City renaissance.



I mentioned this in another topic, but I will reiterate it here. I drove with my brother and my dad all around North City one morning, and I was shocked to see that North City isn't all in ruins. In fact, I'm no architectural expert, but I think North City architecture is generally superior to South City. It's sort of dense and urban but has a West End/Central Corridor kind of "decadent" flair. The Baden neighborhood was a particularly interesting spot, but any of the major thoroughfares has some very interesting houses along it (Page, MLK, Goodfellow, Riverview, N. Broadway, etc.).

I would generally agree with you on the overall building stock. It is really built denser than South St. Louis. Interesting that you bring up Baden. For my first service project at SLU during welcome week this year, I was actually cleaning up an alley in Baden. If you know where the Baden Branch Linbrary is, that's where we were. The reactions of the suburbanites and out of towners was what was expected, but I really enjoyed it. I got to go to an area I really don't get to that often, and do something useful for the community. You guys should have seen this alley. I've seen dumping before, but this was amazing. I also noticed some signs of a rebirth. Some streetscaping has been done, and I did notice some rehabs. There is also a strong community center/association up there, which I think is helping out. The area already had some life, but with some more nudging, I think it can eventually be another one of the neighborhoods we talk about. I actually want to get up there some time to see if the alley is still clean. Hopefully this post makes sense, it is rather late/early.

MattnSTL wrote:I would generally agree with you on the overall building stock. It is really built denser than South St. Louis. Interesting that you bring up Baden. For my first service project at SLU during welcome week this year, I was actually cleaning up an alley in Baden. If you know where the Baden Branch Linbrary is, that's where we were. The reactions of the suburbanites and out of towners was what was expected, but I really enjoyed it. I got to go to an area I really don't get to that often, and do something useful for the community. You guys should have seen this alley. I've seen dumping before, but this was amazing. I also noticed some signs of a rebirth. Some streetscaping has been done, and I did notice some rehabs. There is also a strong community center/association up there, which I think is helping out. The area already had some life, but with some more nudging, I think it can eventually be another one of the neighborhoods we talk about. I actually want to get up there some time to see if the alley is still clean. Hopefully this post makes sense, it is rather late/early.

I did a service project my freshman year of highschool where we cleaned up an alley in the Ville neighborhood, near St. Matthews, I believe.



*last part of post deleted by Administrator*

Many local architectural historians consider north city's vernacular buildings to be far superior to those in south city. A lot of this is due to the fact that this area developed earlier and faster; south city was nearly cut off from downtown by Choteau's Pond and then railyards until the late 19th century when major viaducts were constructed. North city was tied into the commercial center of St. Louis and bloomed, attracting intense investment. It is indeed more dense than much of south city, at least east of Kingshighway. This is not to suggest that south city is not spectacular. The common stock of St. Louis is exceptional and is on par with Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and other early major cities, and surpasses Chicago's (even if Windyville has an amazing downtown). We have a lot to celebrate here.

Thanks ArchCity. The pictures are a tremendous help. Great job! My sister who lives in North County has been discouraging about me helping my daughter and her husband with the purchase of their first home in this neighborhood. Her reply was "Can't they find anything else?" They don't want anything else...they want the house in this neighborhood. I think my sister is out of touch. The pictures make me feel a lot better about helping them to realize their dream. They have already been pre-approved and once I get their and view the inside & out of the property I will give my stamp of approval (hopefully) and you can add another resident to this community! Thanks again all.

I drove down Page from Kingshighway to downtown (merging onto MLK) and noticed the whole street has been repaved, some places narrowed and new meters up along it. It seems like the city is planning to get this area ripe for some new development. Any one know of any plans in the area?

that's my favorite thing to see in the city, meters lining streets with nothing but vacant lots! I wonder if you're still supposed to feed those!

Da*m that's a lot of asphalt!!! The remaining homes are great - especially the one across Page nearest the Save-A-Lot.

Juice13610 wrote:The good people in the hood wouldn't shop in the hood if it was full of the bad ones.

Full of bad stores? I thought we were talking about a lack of stores to shop at.

Bastiat wrote:I'm sure that retailers are not risk averse to poor urban areas because the clientèle dresses differently. There are issues of profitability and I'm sure profits drop when there are higher instances of shoplifting, robbery, etc leading to decreased revenues, fewer civilized customers willing to frequent the store (reduced sales) and higher security costs. There is also the issue that these stores become a "civil rights" issue, where it becomes "racist" to shut down a store that is bleeding to death. In light of this, most companies are smart to avoid the risk.

Don't know how I missed this comment.



First, I don't know anyone who believes it is their "civil right" to have certain kinds of stores in their community. Now that would be asinine. Second, it wouldn't be a "civil rights" or "racist" issue if a store decided to shut down a store located in a poor urban area or any other kind of area because of a genuine economic problem. Keep in mind too that there are certain kinds of African-American and minority-owned businesses/retailers that also do not locate in poor urban areas.



African-American-owned businesses such as Lee J., City Chic Shoe Boutique, Edible Arrangements, The Original Soup Man, etc. etc. are located downtown - not in predominately African-American areas. A lot of times it has to do with the type of clientele/demographic that a business is trying to reach - just like any other retailer/business - so to me that is understandable.



Nonetheless, there are communities - regardless of socio-economic background, race etc. - that would like to access quality basic stores in their own backyard.



In regards to the theft issue, thieves and robbers travel too. It is silly and a false sense of security, in my opinion, for certain retailers to think not locating in a poor urban area is going to save their bottom line. Retailers such as Wal-Mart and Walgreens are recognizing this and are building stores in working-class and poor urban neighborhoods. Money is green.



And the truth of the matter is, many retailers are being robbed blind in areas they think are safe and by people they least expect. They don't have security cameras in Saks and Neiman's at Frontenac just for "Leroy" from north St. Louis or "Billy" from south St. Louis. They have them because of those suburban "desperate housewives" too.



On a macro level, there are whole metropolitan areas that are without certain types of retailers/restaurants/businesses because these businesses feel a certain market doesn't meet its demo requirements. For years some national retailers avoided "blue collar" "middle western" St. Louis. Now there are names like Louie, Tiffany and Kenny (Kenneth Cole) in the market. It shows a maturation of the St. Louis market.



Retailers need to give working-class and poor urban areas genuine consideration.