Municipal Courts Bldg. Market Street

steve · PostJan 30, 2009#262009-01-30T17:49+00:00

Moorlander wrote:In addition to Kiel, another nearby vacant structure, the city-owned Municipal Courts building, also has a developer eyeing plans for a historic rehabilitation. Los Angeles-based Crossland Capital Partners, which developed the $20 million Meridian condominium development at 1136 Washington Ave. in 2006, is in talks with city officials about developing the four-story, 160,000-square-foot former courts building at 1320 Market St. Rob McRitchie, a partner in Crossland Capital Partners, could not be reached for comment by press time.

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory1.html

That's some good news.

I could be wrong, but I don't think Muni is completely vacant. It's my understanding that there are a few offices in the basement that are being occupied, but again that was awhile ago.

jcity · PostJan 31, 2009#272009-01-31T23:20+00:00

i don't see the Municipal Courts building happening.. I hate to be a naysayer, but this one is going to be too difficult to convert imo.

threeonefour · PostFeb 01, 2009#282009-02-01T04:27+00:00

Moorlander wrote:In addition to Kiel, another nearby vacant structure, the city-owned Municipal Courts building, also has a developer eyeing plans for a historic rehabilitation. Los Angeles-based Crossland Capital Partners, which developed the $20 million Meridian condominium development at 1136 Washington Ave. in 2006, is in talks with city officials about developing the four-story, 160,000-square-foot former courts building at 1320 Market St. Rob McRitchie, a partner in Crossland Capital Partners, could not be reached for comment by press time.

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory1.html

That would be great. I guess someone thinks the interior of this place has potential after all.

debaliviere · PostMay 01, 2009#292009-05-01T13:49+00:00

As expected:

$40 million St. Louis Municipal Courts building makeover plannedSt. Louis Business Journal - by Lisa R. Brown

California developer Heisman Properties is buying the city-owned Municipal Courts building downtown and has a $40 million plan to convert the vacant building to office and restaurant space.

The plan is the largest historic restoration project announced in months, as new projects have stalled in the face of the recession.

Heisman Properties, based in Los Angeles, is negotiating with city officials to buy the 160,000-square-foot building on 3 acres at 1320 Market Street from the city of St. Louis, confirmed Comptroller Darlene Green. The $40 million includes acquisition and renovation costs.

The city does not have an asking price for the building, and proceeds from the sale will go to the city’s capital fund. Heisman Properties does not yet have financing, but principal Rob McRitchie said he’s in talks with lenders.

Heisman Properties plans to rename the Municipal Courts building “1300 Market” and convert the three-story limestone and granite structure to office space with a restaurant on the ground floor and some retail space. Some of the original features in the building, which was designed by Issac Taylor, the principal architect of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, the Jefferson Memorial and the Bee Hat Building at 1021 Washington Avenue, include marble staircases, interior courtyards and a grand hallway with vaulted ceilings. A rooftop deck will be added for outdoor events.

Link

steve · PostMay 01, 2009#302009-05-01T14:30+00:00

Wow, more good news. I'm interested to see how this will turn out. Does the article state an anticipated start date? (I'm not a subscriber).

Alex Ihnen · PostMay 01, 2009#312009-05-01T14:32+00:00

Sweet. I'm not sure how you put retail space in the building elevated and set back from the street as this is, but I welcome the investment.

urbanpioneer · PostMay 01, 2009#322009-05-01T14:37+00:00

Retail & a restaurant? Sounds great to me. Should be beneficial to the Gateway Mall... now if we could only get a dozen more projects and some residential.

metzgda · PostMay 01, 2009#332009-05-01T14:43+00:00

I'm particularly excited about the potential 300-car parking garage the city is considering on 14th street. Certainly it is needed, as a Metrolink and downtown MetroBus station are (gasp!) 1-2 blocks away.

Really, this is great to see this building get rehabbed and it sounds like their plan is sound. Still, I can't help but roll my eyes at the idea of yet ANOTHER parking garage. There is one under construction only a couple blocks away on Tucker!

Alex Ihnen · PostMay 01, 2009#342009-05-01T14:48+00:00

Has anyone seen a parking study regarding downtown St. Louis? Or how we compare regarding number of parking spots/worker, etc. to other cities?

ntbpo · PostMay 01, 2009#352009-05-01T14:52+00:00

Great news, along with Kiel opera house that stretch of Market will finally see some life. Hey here's a good idea; lets plant a huge homeless shelter next door to these places.

Alex Ihnen · PostMay 01, 2009#362009-05-01T14:52+00:00

DONE.

urbanpioneer · PostMay 01, 2009#372009-05-01T14:54+00:00

Grover wrote:Has anyone seen a parking study regarding downtown St. Louis? Or how we compare regarding number of parking spots/worker, etc. to other cities?

I seem to remember someone posting the stats somewhere on The Forum a couple months ago... but I'm too lazy to search for them right now.

If I remember correctly, we have more parking than every other city... with the exception of Detroit. But I could be remembering that wrong.

debaliviere · PostMay 01, 2009#382009-05-01T14:59+00:00

Grover wrote:Sweet. I'm not sure how you put retail space in the building elevated and set back from the street as this is, but I welcome the investment.

It will be on the 14th Street side, which is at street level.

steve · PostMay 01, 2009#392009-05-01T15:01+00:00

DeBaliviere wrote:
Grover wrote:Sweet. I'm not sure how you put retail space in the building elevated and set back from the street as this is, but I welcome the investment.

It will be on the 14th Street side, which is at street level.

Which will make that block all the more lively, esp with the opera house re-opening too.

Any word on a tentative start/complete date?

Alex Ihnen · PostMay 01, 2009#402009-05-01T15:07+00:00

DeBaliviere wrote:
Grover wrote:Sweet. I'm not sure how you put retail space in the building elevated and set back from the street as this is, but I welcome the investment.

It will be on the 14th Street side, which is at street level.

This is one case in which I wish they are allowed to do some very substantial alterations to everything but the Market Street facade. Similar to what's been added to Quincy Market in Boston (or the Starbuck's on Maryland in the CWE):

PostMay 01, 2009#412009-05-01T15:12+00:00

There's a great exit/entrance on the 14th street side of the Kiel:

debaliviere · PostMay 01, 2009#422009-05-01T15:35+00:00

steve wrote:
DeBaliviere wrote:
Grover wrote:Sweet. I'm not sure how you put retail space in the building elevated and set back from the street as this is, but I welcome the investment.

It will be on the 14th Street side, which is at street level.

Which will make that block all the more lively, esp with the opera house re-opening too.

Any word on a tentative start/complete date?

They've got 2010 as the completion date. I have some info from Heisman up on the blog right now.

courtland · PostMay 01, 2009#432009-05-01T16:36+00:00

fantastic news! that's the way to bring in the month of May

stlcardsblues1989 · PostMay 01, 2009#442009-05-01T19:55+00:00

Glad to see it being renovated!

Sounds like these few blocks have had some great news in the past few months (this and Kiel).

matt drops the h · PostMay 01, 2009#452009-05-01T20:21+00:00

Grover wrote:Has anyone seen a parking study regarding downtown St. Louis? Or how we compare regarding number of parking spots/worker, etc. to other cities?

I wrote a Beacon article on this a while back:

DowntownStLouis.org boasts that the city's core business district has 46,000 off-street parking spots. That same website also brags about how cheap parking downtown is: an average of $5.31 a day. That's a bad sign for an urban area and a good sign of an oversupply.

You see, the deadest downtowns have the best, cheapest, most available parking. An international study by Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy (1999) analyzed downtown parking levels in 32 cities. They were hunting for a correlation between a city's livability and amount of parking in downtowns. One could hypothesize that, the less of the built environment of a downtown area that remains, and the more parking that has replaced it, the less active it is; the less safe it is; the less attractive it is; and so on.

Newman and Kenworthy arrived at a ratio: 200 parking spaces per 1,000 employees downtown was the upper limit of a "livable" city. To breach the ratio brought about familiar symptoms of a moribund downtown: crime, abandonment, pollution, et cetera. Los Angeles -- a widely panned downtown until recently -- had 524 spaces per 1,000 employees. Detroit, similarly challenged, had 473. Chicago and New York, true 24-hour downtowns, reported 96 and 75, respectively. If we accept that downtown St. Louis has 46,000 parking spaces and 88,000 workers, then St. Louis's ratio is 541 spaces per 1,000 employees, higher than LA and Detroit. Chicago has around 360,000 downtown office workers, but it offers the same number of parking spaces as our downtown!

It was substantially cut due to word limits, but, you get the picture. The parking oversupply is a real problem.

I am in contact with someone now who has a lot of numbers regarding the Treasury Department and how their garages perpetually lose money. I will post on this soon on Dotage.

publiceye · PostMay 04, 2009#462009-05-04T13:16+00:00

Um . . .

If the Treasurer's garages were "perpetually" losing money, wouldn't the bonds have forfeited? And, if any of the the bonds had forfeited, wouldn't that have been news since they are backed by the General Fund?

matt drops the h · PostMay 04, 2009#472009-05-04T14:21+00:00

Well, the argument being presented to me is that the losing venture garages are being subsidized by an unusually active enforcement of parking meters. I haven't had time to investigate this issue because of school, but my finals will be done with by Friday, so expect it soon.

metzgda · PostMay 04, 2009#482009-05-04T15:31+00:00

This project now has an official name - 1300 Market St. The website www.1300marketstl.com offers ample information about the project.

Overall I'm very impressed but I'm not looking forward to the proposed parking structures even if they will have ground level retail on 14th street.

ntbpo · PostMay 04, 2009#492009-05-04T16:00+00:00

This project along with The Kiel Opera House and the Redevelopment of Union Station has the potential to transform a fairly large section of Downtown. If we were to get anything built at BPV the south side of Downtown could rebound dramatically over the next 5+years. I'm excited for the future of Market street.

moorlander · PostMay 05, 2009#502009-05-05T00:37+00:00

Really wish there was a plan (demand) to build on top of that giant garage, gotta love this economy.

Municipal Courts Bldg. Market Street

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