"We would also like the St. Louis Symphony to have a summer home here in Chesterfield," said Kathy Higgins, president of Sachs Properties. Cultural resources like the Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Zoo, as well as public libraries and parks get funded by tax money from all county residents, Sachs said, but the bulk of them are located within St. Louis City.
"We would like to bring at least pieces of those to other places, to Chesterfield," Higgins said.
Wow. What a moron. I live in Fairview and would be extremely pissed off if they started building knock-off attractions like a mini-zoo or mini-science center. Stuff like that is SUPPOSED to be in the city as far as I'm concerned.
Well its been over a decade - but here is an update!
I remember seeing the first plan for "downtown Chesterfield" about 2001 - the guy who was involved at that time told me it was a 20 year build out - who would have guessed it would take 17 years to start
Updated rendering's of Pearl Companies' $80 Million WildHorse project. The development will include 88, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, 25,000 square feet of retail space, a 128-room hotel and conference center, and an upscale restaurant at 16511 Wild Horse Creek Road. Brinkmann is the contractor. Construction begins in August with occupancy slated for early 2021.
I'm not a big fan of the "drive to urbanism" but this is a pretty decent improvement over your average Chesterfield development. Looks quite a bit better than the apartments going up further down the Parkway near Central Park too.
What I don't understand is the location. This would have looked awesome if it was being built on the southwest corner of the Parkway and Wildhorse Creek, similar to those really old Sachs plans for "Downtown Chesterfield," maybe some interaction with the artificial lake they put in. Instead they sandwiched this between the highway, an off ramp and that old trailer park.
^ My favorite is Biz Journal article stating it as an "irreplaceable' Development in Chesterfield. Like your "drive to urbanism" comment better.
My impression is that they planned the chain hotel, added the stip mall just as you got in Richmond Heights off I64/Hanley and then someone decided to plop an apartment block on top of the strip mall instead of doing the out lot chain restaurant.
dredger wrote:
^ My favorite is Biz Journal article stating it as an "irreplaceable' Development in Chesterfield. Like your "drive to urbanism" comment better.
I had a hearty laugh at that line too haha.
Pearl has a chance to do something "irreplaceable" with their Forest Park/DeBal TOD project...this Chesterfield project? Not so much. But better than another THF strip mall I suppose.
$500 million development planned for the old “Downtown Chesterfield” site near 40/Wild Horse Creek/Chesterfield Parkway. Developer says he has no real concerns regarding coronavirus and that interest has been strong. Wants to break ground in the fall. https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... e=facebook
I'm interested in seeing renderings of this. Sounds huge. Between this and the mall site, it sure seems like Chesterfield will have a "Downtown" along Chesterfield Parkway West.
Found a bunch of renderings and graphics on Facebook. The project looks decent and solid (at least to me). The Lamar Johnson Collaborative did the design work here.
I actually like this project. I know some people will complain about it, but I think it's appropriate for the area. It gives a new "walkable" area for residents of the West Suburbs. Most of us already realized that most people who live out there are not going to come down to the City, so this is the next best thing for them besides St. Charles. I've gotten over the fact we will win any of those residents back into the main core of the region, so just let them have their fun. I also like the inclusion of single family homes into the mix. So besides apartments and office space, there will be some more permanent residents here. The variety of housing options is good in my opinion.
Building size is appropriate as well. I do hope that thew development team here works with the Staenberg Group, who intends on redeveloping the Chesterfield Mall site into anther Downtown. My hope is that they work something out to connect the two "downtowns" on Chesterfield Parkway and have one continuous downtown for Chesterfield that integrates the Mall, Watermark Apartments, Central Park and Wildhorse Village all into one.
This whole project reminds me of a large version of Iron Hill.
This next rendering is no longer on Facebook, so the large office buildings on the Lakefront may have been dumped for more housing, but I can't confirm.
The townhome design and street style remain in the plans though.
Most of us already realized that most people who live out there are not going to come down to the City, so this is the next best thing for them besides St. Charles.
Don't quite agree with that. I think there are plenty of reasons for people to visit the city. This is just inauthentic at face value, same for all of the other Chesterfield retail blunders of the last two decades. If you'd see development of this scale where it actually matters for density and land use productivity purposes, the investment would be ten fold just south of Downtown or otherwise. There's nothing strategic or original about this, to me at least. It's more wheel spinning for the region as a whole.
How much is the city of Chesterfield going to be on the hook for here, in your estimation?
Will be a nice cultural town center for Chesterfield. I'm sure it won't be affordable for anybody working in the shops and restaurants, but it would make a nice walkable option for local office workers. Hopefully they can weave some connective bike infrastructure through the spaghetti of surrounding roads, a connection to the levee trail would be invaluable.
With that being said, Chesterfield is a mistake and should not exist.
^ Pretty much agree with you. The overall mistake of the exburb aside, I think this is an appropriate, and even nice development for this site. There is already significant multi-family development nearby, including hundreds of units currently under construction. Chesterfield's Central Park with its large amphitheater and lake is actually pretty nice and has plenty of bike and ped infrastructure that could tie into this (and probably will if I had to guess).
Chesterfield Parkway actually has good, wide sidewalks in this area (and for most of its run on the west side of Clarkson) though it's too wide and fast. This development would be very close to City Hall and whatever comes of the Chesterfield Mall site, which is likely going to be denser than what is there now. There's a public library and a YMCA right here too. RGA, Pfizer, Monsanto and Diebergs Corporate are all close by.
Chesterfield blows...but it's not going anywhere, so might as well try and make it better. And this is better than tract housing in Lincoln County.
For what it's worth, I grew up in Chesterfield and still have family and a few friends out there and all of them love coming into the city. Actually they probably come in more now (and for more than just the occasional Cardinal or Blues game) then they ever have. So I don't really agree with the characterization that this is suppose to supplant the city for Chesterfield or West County folks. And I don't think there is anything about it that does. At its heart this project is just a few office and apartment buildings that are probably going to take years to come full circle.
The project has been approved by the City of Chesterfield. The next step is to break ground. As such, here are some more renderings of the project from a PDF sent out by the developer.
Wonder if the recreational lake which also doubles as a retention pond is the next big thing in larger developments. Reading about a large singe residential housing development in Fargo, where I went to college, that included a "recreational lake" but in essence fulfilled a number of functions that the developer gladly stated in the article. First and foremost it was serving as a borrow pit to meet fill needs so no material had to be imported (one less headache and cost), an oversized retention pond to eliminate most of the in ground pipes and still meet storm water requirements (drainage into the property for single collection point instead of away from the property) and finally, built in such a way to facilitate a long term amenity. It all made a lot of sense but assume the development has to be big enough to think in that terms and pencil out
The one thing of note in article concerning the Fargo development was what it was going to take make it viable to have a swimming beach in terms of water quality, stagnant water after building a small shallow lake. Looks like the project in the renderings above is thinking along the lines of small beach head, public swimming area but confining it as well which also makes sense
wow, that's 1million+ sq footage of office space! Is there even that high of demand in chesterfield let alone Clayton? Also, I really wish they could take possibly squeeze 1 more row of townhouses right next to the lake, it would sorta be weird but cool living on the water. Overall really solid especially for a place like a chesterfield which is known to let all the gimmicky stuff slide.
The latest comprehensive plan for Chesterfield has been approved by the Planning Commission.
" Planning Commission chair Merrell Hansen said that a resounding message from those meetings was the residents’ “deep desire” to keep Chesterfield’s suburban residential neighborhoods as they are. Further, she added, “There is a huge outpouring for a city center, a downtown where people will gather. With few exceptions, residents spoke passionately about the need for a place to come after work or on weekends or for special events.”
The Ruths Chris Steakhouse in this development will open November 16th. It occupied 16,000sf of space, features an outdoor patio, 2 rooftop decks, 3 bars, 6 private dining rooms, wine lockers and a double-sided fireplace. The place can seat 450 customers. I'm surprised it's that big.
