urbanSTL

^ Hopefully we will see an announcement for Wexfords next phase that will include more office, labs, relocations for the US Metals site sooner than later. Seems like it got quiet . Have to agree, outside of a well placed hotel tower near the new Boyle metrolink station, I would rather see CORTEX bring more jobs to the area instead of another box store and or an apartment building. Leave some room in the market for Koplar/Koman/Claybo to build that 30 story residential tower at Lindell & Kingshighway!!
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You could only hope that the skyrocketing prices in the Bay area and the repeated Boston snowstorms that some one would take a second look at CORTEX as an alternative place to locate resources and investment.

Also, I don't know what kind of leasing expectations the West Pine Lofts people had, considering their development is geared toward college kids and is currently under construction. I can't imagine many college kids are in the process of looking to lease an apartment for the next school year.

^ I think they've said they are not targeting college students. Perhaps the confusion doesn't help their marketing/leasing.

Sam Chimento, a Cornerstone founder, said demolition should begin in late March of ACI’s 1950s factory and smaller adjacent buildings.

by "smaller adjacent buildings" i hope he doesn't mean the 3-story apartment buildings that are up for sale just east of the 1-story ACI warehouse. that would be f*cking stupid and wasteful.

i worry about the boarded-up mansion next door to Cafe Ventana as well. i assume it's owned by SLU. waiting for it to get knocked down any day now.

urban_dilettante wrote:

Sam Chimento, a Cornerstone founder, said demolition should begin in late March of ACI’s 1950s factory and smaller adjacent buildings.

by "smaller adjacent buildings" i hope he doesn't mean the 3-story apartment buildings that are up for sale just east of the 1-story ACI warehouse. that would be f*cking stupid and wasteful.

i worry about the boarded-up mansion next door to Cafe Ventana as well. i assume it's owned by SLU. waiting for it to get knocked down any day now.

I actually asked about the mansion. It is owned by the Cafe Ventana owner who wanted to make it an italian restaurant.

^ good news. how old is that information?

The two 3-story buildings directly east of the 1-story industrial warehouse building would be torn down to accommodate the proposed West Pine project discussed in the article.

^ ugh. i don't understand this. given the amount of empty space near SLU there's no need to tear stuff down in order to build new. it's just f*cking wasteful, and our net gain in density ends up being smaller than it could otherwise be. in DC these buildings would be incorporated into new construction rather than discarded. why can't we do sh*t like that in St. Louis?

^In DC??? Every time I go there I see a new cookie cutter boxy mid rise apartment building going up somewhere. I don't see anything old incorporated into new construction in that city. I just wonder who heck rents all these place. Heck, I believe DC is the only growing metro with declining rent rates.

Actually DC is unusually fond of facadism, where the facades of old buildings are incorporated into the new. There are lots of crazy crafted buildings there like this one:
(from a former DC resident)

urban_dilettante wrote:^ good news. how old is that information?

About a year old. So it seems that the owner is sitting on it but I don't think it is in too much danger right now.

debaliviere wrote:Also, I don't know what kind of leasing expectations the West Pine Lofts people had, considering their development is geared toward college kids and is currently under construction. I can't imagine many college kids are in the process of looking to lease an apartment for the next school year.

I'm sidetracking here, but it's funny to see that said. In Champaign (and Urbana I assume—but I never lived on that side), leasing of the student oriented apartments all throughout town is pretty well wrapped up (if you want any decent choices) by the end of the previous fall, if not sooner. So like at least 8 or 9 months in advance. It's absurd, but somewhere along the line that's how the system worked out there. Always thought it was silly.

ImprovSTL wrote:

urban_dilettante wrote:^ good news. how old is that information?

About a year old. So it seems that the owner is sitting on it but I don't think it is in too much danger right now.

That news is even older than you think. I've been been at SLU for five years, and I've heard whispers since I first got there about the owners of Ventana rehabbing that building into an Italian restaurant. It's frustrated me to see the building just sit there for years, but ironically, holding it in rehab limbo may pay off for the owners now that the street seems to be taking off. It will be a far less risky redevelopment.

As posted on the Preservation Board thread, an application has been filed for demo of the rear portion of 3842 Olive.

The 3737 building in now gone (which was no loss), but 3821 seems worth saving.

I sure am curious as to what's happening with this block.

So according to the final Preservation Board agenda:

"The applicant proposes to demolish the rear portion of the Henry L. Wolfner Memorial Library building. The applicant is currently rehabilitating the front section of the building on Olive Street. The demolition and rehabilitation are being executed to facilitate the redevelopment of nearly the entire length of the north and south sides of Olive Street between Spring and
Vandeventer. The developer intends to construct 22 housing units in 17 buildings in addition to an apartment building on the south side of Olive. These buildings will be designed by internationally significant architects - all of whom will be working in St. Louis for the first time."

^ [insert owen wilson "wow"]. there's been several attempts to infill this block over the years but maybe this will finally be the one.

This site plan was also in the Preservation Board Agenda:

Screen Shot 2018-08-24 at 4.41.36 PM by
Alex Price, on Flickr

Very interesting; can't wait to see the renderings.

Much lower density than I expected, and I thought there was going to be retail too. I guess the apartment building will be on Vandeventer, with perhaps retail below that, and maybe more up along Spring.

Anyway, should be a great project, and it's always good to bring fresh architectural ideas to St. Louis. Emily Pulitzer has great taste, and anything she's involved with will look fantastic (and look...the garages face the alleys!).

Stltoday posed an article about a planned development of the block of Olive between Vandeventer and Spring. So glad that this desolate block will finally come to life again. I hope this inspires more infill in the neighborhood.

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... a05a2.html

I would like to hope that the residential building is designed by a renowned architect as well. I'm not sure of the size of the lot that they plan on building it at, but if it is higher than 3 floors, I'll be shocked . The STLToday article says that the apartment building will have "20 or so units in it". It all depends on the section where it is built I guess and how large the units will be that will ultimately determine height. Other than that, it seems like a great idea and I applaud Pulitzer and Trampe for their ideas. AXI:OME seems like a ok architecture firm. I never heard of them but based on their work that can be found here (http://axi-ome.net/), they look like a forward thinking architect. I could see this kicking off other developments nearby of a smaller scale.

AXI:OME's website includes these concepts for the Olive project. They're doing the Wolfner rehab, but it looks like they also explored re-using some of the buildings that have now been torn down. Either way, this is going to be a forward looking project, which will introduce St. Louis to some new thinking in architecture. Between this and The One Hundred, I'm hopeful that some eyes will finally be opened around here, and we can start to move beyond red brick.

Interesting stuff:

http://www.axi-ome.net/index.php?/proje ... velopment/