urbanSTL

Will the city allow first floors to be filled with residential? I thought all building required some form of commercial on the first floor.

bigmclargehuge wrote:Will the city allow first floors to be filled with residential? I thought all building required some form of commercial on the first floor.

The Merchandise Mart has first floor apartments.

Gateway City wrote:What if Roberts and Arcade BOTH f-ck up and put apartments on the ground level...?

Arcade is planning on having a "museum" facing Olive, a cafe facing Pine, and Webster U. administrative offices lining the Arcade itself. There might be one small space for additional retail along 8th. But there won't be any apartments on the ground floor or second floor.

Apartments on the first floor of the Board of Ed. (Roberts Lofts) Building is indeed an idiotic idea. Look at every other Schnucks built since about 1980, it is surrounded by complementary retail: hair salons, shoe stores, casual dining restaurants, Radioshacks, tax prep stores, yoga studios, dry cleaners, UPS/FedEx stores, clothing shops, ice cream/smoothie shops, etc.... Culinaria has a couple opticians and a couple banks around it, but it's (after Macy's closing) the biggest retail anchor downtown. It should be able to support a hub of activity that developers, like those for the Roberts Lofts, need to realize and get on board with.

I would like to know the line of reasoning for their decision, because I'm having a very hard time interpreting it myself.

KerrytheKonstructor wrote:I would like to know the line of reasoning for their decision, because I'm having a very hard time interpreting it myself.

The line of reasoning behind converting first-floor retail space to apartments? Presumably it's because no one wants to lease retail space downtown right now and that residential seems to be the only use that's in demand.

I have to assume there's not a lot of demand for first floor residential downtown either. Is this project getting LIHTCs? If they are, those will be the subsidized units. But at some point, if not today, the retail demand will exist and they'll either be stuck with tenants at $700 a month or have to re-rebuild before they can collect those good rents.

nickfindley wrote:I have to assume there's not a lot of demand for first floor residential downtown either. Is this project getting LIHTCs? If they are, those will be the subsidized units. But at some point, if not today, the retail demand will exist and they'll either be stuck with tenants at $700 a month or have to re-rebuild before they can collect those good rents.

I wouldn't want to live on the first floor if I had a place Downtown. I would like to live there eventually, but not until the retail game has really taken off.

KerrytheKonstructor wrote:I would like to know the line of reasoning for their decision, because I'm having a very hard time interpreting it myself.

The building's retail broker probably suggested this to the developers since they couldn't find a retail tenant.

Presbyterian wrote:An $825,000 building permit has been approved for interior alterations on the first floor for multi-family use. Sounds like residential.