urbanSTL

Just drove down Manchester and saw dumpsters in front of 4304 Manchester and the old 'After diner' location next to Atomic Cowboy. 4304 is the old Acorn building and listed as 'for sale' on zillow, anybody know if it's been purchased already or any plans for the building? I think I read somewhere that there were plans for the 'After diner' building to become a diner run by Atomic Cowboy. Hopefully that's what is happening, I would love to get a 24-hour place nearby.

The ACORN building was sold. For too little. Don't know of plans.

Alex Ihnen wrote:

lukethedrifter wrote:The ACORN building was sold. For too little. Don't know of plans.

If it was too little you should have bought it! It was a cool looking building, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has significant problems.

A friend who worked for ACORN said they sold if for something like $80k and it was snapped up immediately.

Yeah we haven't seen any new storefronts fill up in a while. I'm hoping that there are people interested who are just holding out until the impending Manchester construction is finished.

My gut feeeling is that the Grove needs some of the proposed housing to move forward along with the proposed Drury Inn to go in before you will see more store fronts filled. Certainly doable with the ever expanding BJC/Cortex Possibilities/A New Shriners Hospital and much more sustainable for the Grove to have a strong base of residents along with nearby hotel guests to support businesses.

Looks like Flavors BBQ has opened up shop in the old Five location, but it will take a week or so for them to get a full bar going. There are some more details on Sauce's blog:

http://www.saucemagazine.com/blog/?cat=19

To elaborate on Alex recent post about the Forest Park/MoDOT? property at the corner of I-64 and Kings Highway. Would a new Drury Hotel help or not help the Grove? Would it bring added traffic to local businesses (loaded question)?

I just can't help think that the Grove/FPSE success in general is tied to Barnes Jewish/Cortex and Forest Park considering that the Grove's residentil foot print is confined any way you look at it. In other words, a small residential area can support only so many businesses. In essence any new hotel would be built to serve Barnes Jewish interests as well as hoping to get spill over from Forest Park visitors. However, I tend to believe that new business generates more business for others.

Can't hurt, although Drury's usually have an on-site restaurant.

On the Wash U Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation's website they recently posted an interview with Pete Rothschild. In the interview, he says that the wedge building at Arco/Manchester is leased out to a bar/restaurant with a roof top deck and a yoga studio. I haven't seen anything going on at the site, but that would be great news if it were true. Has anyone heard anything?

Link to the interview:
http://wumcrc.com/pete-rothschild/

^ Nice article. Thanks for posting. Hopefully it continues to grow with developments at Chouteau and Taylor and the new housing over by McKree (I think that's the right spot)

What's up with this Art Crank thing going on next week? Saw it on the events page. Looks interesting. Is just bike art or is there other stuff going on?

Alex Ihnen wrote:http://www.westendword.com/NC/0/1826.html

In 2010 alone, seven new businesses moved into vacant storefronts, raising the total number of businesses to more than 50.
...
Those charged with promoting development in The Grove report that there are nearly 30,000 employees working within a mile radius of the Manchester business strip.

Unfortunately, a one-mile walk is just a bit too long to make a lunch-time stroll attractive for many. That, and the walk from SLU or WU or MoBot is awful.

Alex, wonder if their is any new details on the I-64 interchange proposed nearby. St. Louis Biz Journals featured a story on it, more specifically the BJC/MoDOT cost sharing agreement. Some well planned out bridges is what its going to take for any chance of decent access between BJC and FPSE. It wouldn't hurt if Shriners would break ground.


BJC, MoDOT team on $23 million interchange
St. Louis Business Journal - by E.B. Solomont
Date: Friday, May 6, 2011, 5:00am CDT

Read more: BJC, MoDOT team on $23 million interchange | St. Louis Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/prin ... llion.html

Is the re-striping of Manchester still in the streetscape plans? If so, when is this supposed to happen?

Rode up to the Art Crank last night. Alex, your poster looked great. All of the poster's looked really good actually. I wanted to buy a lot of them but had to hold myself back from blowing too much money. Ended just getting one. I like how the Grove is becoming the bike center of St. Louis.

Is Newstead Tower Public House re-opening?

This application (apparently a duplicate one) appears in this week's City Journal:

DIRECTOR OF STREETS
Application No. 115351, Newstead
Tower Public House, encroach with sidewalk
café at 4353 Manchester ordered filed, by
reason of the fact that it is a duplicate
application.

It would be great to see that place be used again. It's such a cool building. I also believe that I saw some sort of 'coming soon' sign in the window of the old Mia Rosa last week. I could be wrong about that, but I thought I saw it while driving west on Manchester.

stlsteve87 wrote:It would be great to see that place be used again. It's such a cool building. I also believe that I saw some sort of 'coming soon' sign in the window of the old Mia Rosa last week. I could be wrong about that, but I thought I saw it while driving west on Manchester.

Ian: Mia Rosa --> Crostini

Article highlighting new businesses in the Grove. I've been to the Afghan place. It was good eatin'. The place is tiny though.

STLToday.com - St. Louis' new neighborhood boasts new business

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/colu ... aign=email