urbanSTL

The birds will have a lovely view of the handsome upper portion of this building. The base, like the Park East, is horrible.



The Biz Journal article mentioned 166 units and "several hundred parking spaces." That is way too much parking even if you count for support staff and retail. Part of the reason Portland has been so successful is their parking managment strategy --- to limit the amount of parking a developer can build. We need pedestrians, not parking.



They need to reduce the parking down to 175 spaces at most with some or all of that being below grade. The proposed tower at Euclid & Lindell had similar issues and the redesigns have greatly improved the overall relationship with the street.



We need good zoning, parking management and visioning in this city. Yes, a new tower is welcomed downtown but we really must get a handle on these horrible bases right at the sidewalk where it counts.

I don't know. I don't think the base looks that bad. Maybe a bit flat, but not horrible.



The real value in reduced parking would be increased residential units in the building and of course, taking some of that parking and dumping it into a transit fund to help fund the construction of the downtown loop and either the north or southside lines.

irocktheparty2000 wrote:

Arch City wrote:Source

"The local foursome -- Riley and his father, Philip Riley; Ben Muchoki; and Brad Waldrop -- are active in the downtown loft-conversion market. Waldrop transformed an old school and church at 2401 S. 12th Street into 14 condos called the Barton Street Lofts.



The foursome also bought six of the Knickerbocker units at Washington Avenue and 13th Street. One of the investors moved into one of the lofts, and they resold three of the lofts unfinished, custom-built one and are currently converting the sixth.



The local investment group, which called itself Dragon Development for the Locust Street building purchase and sale, is now operating as RileyWaldrop LLC, Ben Riley said. But it does have more plans to buy and develop downtown real estate, especially now that the group has secured the capital from the sale of the Dragon Trading building.



"We believe in downtown," Riley said. "The momentum is picking up, because people, who didn't believe it could happen before, now have to believe it."

Can we give them the benefit of the doubt?



Here's their website:



RileyWaldrop

Listen, not trying to slam these guys as I have stated that I really hope they succeed in bringing this project to market. But let's be for real. Converting a small building in Soulard, fixing up a few exisitng spaces at knickerbocker and buying and selling a building on Locust is a far cry from developing a 22-story new constrcution project in downtown St. Louis. The positives are that they have now seemed to align themselves with a seasoned builder and are poised to really start to make a splash in the development world. I hope they rock it out.

Do you hope they rock the party 2000?

The point is not that the base looks bad, but that it presents a massive wall to the pedestrian on the sidewalk. Look at the pictures, the base is taller than the nearby buildings which have active spaces above the first floor.



Vancouver addresses this issue by having retail or townhouses at the base of high rise towers. Parking is reduced and set toward the back of the site.



Yes, 175 spaces! And they should be "unbundled" from the units ---- require folks to buy the spaces and pay full retail for the cost to park their car. We'll never have the public support to fund a good downtown loop and other transit as long as we don't pay the price for parking and everywhere we go has more than ample spaces.



Many places downtown have only one space. Buyers that have a second car can have a lift if they wish. What we need to think about is a shared garage in the area ---- on some of the existing vacant land. Developers can make payments in lieu of spaces to a fund which will build a garage --- think of the one on Delmar across from the Tivoli but taller. We might even be able to put it off Washington on a side street.



The idea is guests and shoppers would use a shared garage so that we avoid every new building having extra spaces for retail use.

irocktheparty2000 wrote:
Listen, not trying to slam these guys as I have stated that I really hope they succeed in bringing this project to market. But let's be for real. Converting a small building in Soulard, fixing up a few exisitng spaces at knickerbocker and buying and selling a building on Locust is a far cry from developing a 22-story new constrcution project in downtown St. Louis. The positives are that they have now seemed to align themselves with a seasoned builder and are poised to really start to make a splash in the development world. I hope they rock it out.

And your concern was what again?

Urban Review St. Louis wrote:What we need to think about is a shared garage in the area ---- on some of the existing vacant land.

There's a cool new garage in OPO Square!

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:

Urban Review St. Louis wrote:What we need to think about is a shared garage in the area ---- on some of the existing vacant land.

There's a cool new garage in OPO Square!

Ug, yes. I was thinking of something around 18th or so to serve the emerging downtown west area.

He wishes the local partner was a more seasoned development veteran, and fears their lack of experience may mean difficulty in seeing this thing a reality.



He is glad, however, that they seemed to have teamed with a strong firm, with a track record of good work.



Hopes for the best, but has reservations.

citywatcher wrote:Central Scrutinizer wrote

There's a cool new garage in OPO Square!

I am glad you like your cool new garage and seem to forget what it replaced, I guess the garage is cooler then the Century building was.



For the time it has taken for them to get to this point in the construction we could have had a revitilized Century Building



The garage looks bad and tacky and doesnt seem like it will ever get finished, and what about the retail?, the developers dont seem to be in too much of a hurry to finish this thing.



Shady developers and broken promises= $shady profits$



that is all, unless you want me to post another picture of the demise of the Century

Someone needs to attend a Satire, Parody, Baggy Pants and Seltzer Seminar.

^This again would be the value of a modern and felxable parking and transportation stratagey for downtown. Over the past 7 years more than enough new lofts have been created that had downtown been working with developers all along under a flexable system, the City could have been collecting payments in lew of parking spaces to meet the parking required for each loft. With the combined funds, it is sad to think of the tanspotation improvements the City could have funded (new downtown bus circulator, light rail, or more praticaly, new garages on vacant lots in the area). Most importantly, by consolidating parking into a few well located garages, the City would have opened up even more land due north and South or Washington (partiuarly due north along Delmar) that is currently nothing but parking lots to serve the new lofts. One long strip of condos and apartments with no depth is not a way to create the type of neighborhood downtown needs.