More good news as reported by Martin Van Der Werf of the Post-Dispatch.
AIN?T IT GRAND: St. Louis University is entertaining proposals for the northeast corner of Grand and Lindell. At least three local developers ? Clayco Construction, Pyramid Construction and Roberts Cos. ? submitted plans last week to top university officials. All propose a mix of retail, offices and residential in buildings as tall as eight stories.
About damn time, I mean it would be supurb and magnaminous for SLU to erect retail, office, and residential mixed use buildings to fill up midtown/ Grand Center with eight story buildings. I imagine the plans of those building will match the SLU campus and not their modernist 1960s buildings east of Grand or hey maybe they might encourage an architect to be innovative and cunning. Yea SLU for getting the ball rolling!
Well, what used to be here was 2-3 stories in 3 buildings and mixed use (retail below with offices and apartments above). Except for Jack-n-Crack, the other buildings did have sidewalk-lining zero-lot-line activity (Chinese restaurant, Vito's former location). So now it looks like the old brick and gothic-adorned buildings were torn down at least for increased density.
I'm not sure what is going on, but when Schoemehl talked to my State and Local Politics class earlier this month, he said he would be going to talk with Biondi later in the day to try to convince him to hold off on developing the lot until the Metropolitan Building is done. The Metropolitan will be condos, and there should be an announcement soon. He thinks that a more impressive building will result by waiting, and it will make a better gateway. He wants something that can hold it's own compared to Jesuit Hall. He also said he expects any building there to be 8-10 floors.
MattnSTL wrote:I'm not sure what is going on, but when Schoemehl talked to my State and Local Politics class earlier this month, he said he would be going to talk with Biondi later in the day to try to convince him to hold off on developing the lot until the Metropolitan Building is done.
OFF THE TABLE: So much for the red-hot bidding war on land that St. Louis University owns at Grand and Lindell boulevards.
The university has decided to delay the project for at least a year, even after nearly a dozen developers inquired about it. The reason: It wants to see what happens with the long-empty Metropolitan Building a block north.
Grand Center Inc. head Vince Schoemehl says his organization has chosen a developer that plans to turn the eight-story building into a 60-unit condo complex, with 17,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor. He declined to name the company, but says it is researching the project. Grand Center should have a final determination of whether the redevelopment will go forward in about five weeks.
MattSTL, maybe i am not posting this in the right area, but if SLU and Grand Center are so worried about having a grand entrance to the district, why did they leave the south east corner of Lindel and Grand vacant with only the Firstar plaza there? I just don't get it. Seems like the whole plan is a bit short sighted.
Because they wanted to have a grand view of Xavier Church. While it is a great view, I would prefer to have a building there. For all the things SLU has done for the area, they have done an equal number of wrongs.
They could have left, but stayed, putting a large institution in the area to keep it stable during the rough times. The west side of Grand on the north campus is pretty urban, even though the east side looks like it could be in any suburb. SLU is very hit and miss. They have definately helped to keep the neighborhood stable, but now they are just trying to continue the old practices in an area that has changed dramatically. The practices of just bulldoze does not fit that area anymore, not that it necesarrily should have ever.
You could get away with that back in the 70's. Sadly, everyone did that. When they want to do that now, I generally cringe. SLU is not completely evil, just mostly. Most of my problems involve the administration.
Citylover, if you compare pictures of the SLU campus from the 70's and 80's to the way it looks today, you'll see how much better the campus is now. When I was a freshman, there was a section 8 high rise where the law school atrium is currently located. There was a scary 50's style motel on Olive where Parks College stands today. An ugly Mercantile Bank branch was at the corner of Grand and Lindell. The Queen's Daughters Building was vacant and had a 50's style dormitory building attached to it - SLU did a painstaking restoration job on the building and tore down the dorm. The Bannister House was being used as a fraternity house. Grand Forest apartments and Grand Towers (now Marchetti Towers) were under outside ownership and had some "interesting" tenants. We used to break into the Continental Building frequently, which was easy to do before SLU supported Steve Trampe in his renovation efforts. I could go on and on, but overall, SLU has done a lot more good than it has bad.
Thanks for the pic. It looks like a lot of good buildings by the Continental were still there at the time. Too bad that street isn't intact. Lot of other good buildings are missing, too! However, it is true that the the SLU area is much better than it was twenty years ago. But the progress has been slow!!!! I disagree strongly with some of the things they have done, but overall SLU and it's campus are a huge asset to St. Louis. Something to build on. Thank God they haven't pulled out! One of my favorite views of St. Louis is looking up Grand towards St. Xavier and the Fox. It was something in its day and I can't wait for the Downtown/CWE energy to show up in Midtown. Does anybody remember that huge development of horrible townhouses just east of SLU? They were built (1960s or 1970's?) to be mixed income and turned low income very quickly. They were a disaster and cheaply built. It was horrible around Midtown in those days!
SLU has done much more in recent years to help the area, including providing alot of support for Grand Center. The work SLU did to create a nice campus by blocking off roads i think really helped the school and might help midtown in the long run. However, the developement i don't get is the new Busch student center, with all of its retail/ resturant options that could have been facing onto grand. I just think they blundered with that and the site selection for the new arena.
Does anybody remember that huge development of horrible townhouses just east of SLU? They were built (1960s or 1970's?) to be mixed income and turned low income very quickly. They were a disaster and cheaply built. It was horrible around Midtown in those days!
Ah yes, Laclede Town. That development had deteriorated so badly that by the time I was in college, it was home to tons of illegal activity. The apartments had closed, so all the buildings were boarded up, and it was VERY scary.
With regards to the arena, the site is not ideal, but it's the best that the university could do. It certainly beats the original plan that was floated which involved the demolition of several buildings in the burdgeoning Locust Street loft district.
As far as the Busch Center is concerned, perhaps the reason why its restaurants and shops aren't facing Grand is to ensure that they're used only by students. Just a thought, I don't know if that's why they built it that way or not.
The picture that Citylover posted is really interesting. I had never seen those small buildings at Grand and Laclede before, and it looks like there was a cool mansion there at one point. It would be great to have those buildings around the Continental back - they would have added so much to the Grand Center neighborhood. I remember when the Beaumont Building was demolished (the high rise in the upper right hand corner of the pic) my senior year - it bummed me out!
As one who used to live there and currently works there, I need to remind all the pro-urban-stance-on-development folks that the man currently in charge of SLU wants nothing on that campus to look like "the big, bad city."
The decline of Midtown in the 60's--80's were threatening enrollment. The path to make SLU a viable city school to out-of-towners was to disassociate itself with the city to a large extent. SLU had little choice at the time and Midtown was nowhere near a rebirth. This has been Fr. Biondi's campaign for his entire tenure (see above comments PLUS the fru-fru street signs around campus, etc.)
YES, he hid all the retail stuff in the new student center. It was to keep the "homeless" out of his student/conference center. (Not to mention that by nature it's services are for students...they did not do market research on what would "sell" to the neighbors.) Has it got issues. Sure. Could it have been designed to look like DuBourg or College Church? Absolutely. Would that added expense translate into students in seats? Who can say?
Although SLU has been great for the neighborhood by acting as an anchor, it's really not their mission to redevelop the neighborhood as a whole. That should come from you, me and other developers and planners and concerned folks.
I will throw my $0.02 in by saying that I'm not too interested in seeing a condo building going into the building in question (north of the corner.) If they are cheap, it will attract students and it will generally not be well kept. If they are expensive, they will not sell. The majority of the mid-higher end units in the Continental are vacant.
I actually sat in the first developers meeting for the corner lot and SLU was basically giving it away to the right development. They were very particular about explaing that Father's blessing on the design would be key to getting the bid. A smaller number of the "qualified" developers were interested in both properties.
As one who sits @ SLU, I'd like to see if anyone thinks an upscale, but hip and friendly hotel should go into the Met Bldg. I think it's a great idea. SLU owns a 60 room hotel (Water Tower Inn @ Grand and Layfayette) and it's packed all the time. I think it would be a great anchor to drive foot traffic into the neighborhood as well a a revenue generator for SLU. It would also help sustain whatever blend of retail shops go on the corner in the future.
Again...,y $0.02
Anyone know the status of the lawsuit on all the developments in midtown?
It does not make sense to me that SLU would wait on their project until the Metropolitan Building is finished. There must me a larger project in the works. First guess...the Midtown State Building. It looks largely empty. Maybe the State will consolidate those offices into the new building they have leased on Chouteau. That would be better than moving Probation and Parole to the Midtown Building.
If SLU could get the Midtown Building, it would be quite a coup. The property also includes the parking lot just east of the Medina.
STLgasm wrote:Something is finally happening at Grand & Olive. No announcements, but there are crews there.
I understand they are just temporarily landscaping until they decide on a proposal. It sounds like it is farther and farther off. Go figure. They should have just left the building that was there.
Seriously.. Why was it ever torn down? They better not put in some B.S. "green space"... Where's the tower, I heard that Grand Center ran Opus out of the area. And what is UP with the Metropolitan Building? It seems that Grand Center always wants their hands in ownership of these different projects... They need to butt out and let private development flourish. The more I learn about it, the more Grand Center seems to be an impediment to progress- not the facilitator it claims to be.. Trust me, I've talked to plenty of people who've dealt with them. It's almost as if Biondi and GC have some sort of deal or front for each other.. I was against the retarded law suit against the tif, etc. But really, talk to some of the people who've been involved for some time.. I had no idea...
