Positives: much better integration with the city. Amazing potential for pre and post game activities including Schlafly Tap Room and bars at 20th & Washington.
Negatives: will solidify under-utilized parking in downtown west. This will be yet another example of how stadiums don't actually spur development, although I'd love to be wrong. Will also further damage the street grid by the likely removal of Pine (my assumption) and prevents the reconstruction of Chestnut. Also further from a MetroLink station.
I just did a quick area calculation and Sporting KC's stadium is on a 11.62 acre block and there's some added space north of the stadium... the lot confined by Pine Street is 10.54 acres, so its doable that the stadium isn't closing Pine Street.
I don't think anyone will ever be able to point to the stadium and call it downtown west's savior, but I think it's going to help. There are multiple factors at play in downtown St. Louis that give me a ton of hope for the area. Downtown and Midtown are on a bit of a roll these days, and you can just add this to the list of projects in the pipeline. In no way is this project a panacea - and I don't think it's being billed as such.
My hope is that the ownership group will not be content with just 17 or 18 soccer games a year at the stadium. I hope concerts, events, etc., are hosted there. Soccer outside the US is very nearly a 12-month sport. The area surrounding the stadium could cater to fans that care about the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, Lixa MX, or whatever else. It could also host local and regional soccer tournaments, etc.
The Butler Brothers building, my favorite dead building in St. Louis, is just two blocks away. Could this become a hotel? Mixed use?
Everything I've heard is that they don't talk branding/team name/etc. until after the team is officially announced. Once it's announced they begin that process. That's only what i've heard though...
I wouldn’t get too excited about the stadium being woven into the neighborhoods fabric. Historically these developments hav dont their best to separate the site from the urban city
I’m late to the party on this, but can somebody fill me in on the MLS stadium now being north of Market? I wasn’t aware of that. What will become of the land south of Market where the interchange is? I’m just a bit confused. Does the stadium go over Market and cut it off? If one of our amateur map-makers could place the stadium footprint on a map, I’d really appreciate it!
Knowing the retail strips are going to be designed by HOK presumably... I'm pretty curious to see how those turn out. Should be really cool (praying its not a food truck row)...
The Louligans will definitely be marching down Clark Street from Union Station then north up that retail alley...
...feeling like there's a lot of room down there for metrolink stop also...
So it looks like it’s actually not designed like it will help downtown west businesses. Creating a faux retail section to wall fans off from the rest of downtown.
Those blue strips representing retail space aren't making my socks roll up and down. Did they give any more detail about that space? Number of floors? No residential at all? Will it contain a Subway Sandwich store or Raising Canes?
John Coctostan wrote:Those blue strips representing retail space aren't making my socks roll up and down. Did they give any more detail about that space? Number of floors? No residential at all? Will it contain a Subway Sandwich store or Raising Canes?
No specifics yet. At the time, these were supposed be single story. That was a few months ago so hopefully we got a few multi family buildings in there.
Moving the stadium north of Market, while not interrupting Pine, seems like a fantastic idea.
I really couldn’t care less about the prospects of some dreamed up new neighborhood behind Union Station. What I care about is this stadium having the maximum impact on the existing neighborhood of Downtown West and it’s foot traffic and development prospects.
The previously proposed location seemed slightly tucked away, with 40, Market and even Union Station itself acting as barriers from the rest of Downtown. The newly rumored location would make it part of an actual existing neighborhood, with more benefit to western Wash Ave, the currently pretty patchy Locust Business District and even Midtown Alley.
I know it’s only a move across the street, but I think it could have a big positive impact on the experience of attending a game and the immediate DTW surroundings.
Now how about just putting the retail concept across 20th Street or across Pine from the Stadium? Instead of in the tucked away no-man’s land.
That stadium site plan has to be very preliminary, because little about that would make sense.
By the way, those ramps in 22nd Street Interchange Valley are still in use are they not? They were as of early this year, and I don't recall seeing any ramp closures last time I went by. I know that a 2-year LCRA purchase option for 30 acres of MODOT property was discussed a few years ago, but I don't think the agreement was ever finalized, and would have expired by now anyway.
A north-of-Market stadium site could allow for construction to begin without any immediate need for MODOT property, so I thought that might be what was driving the new location, but an east-west pitch orientation, parallel to Market, would preclude that possibility.
