urbanSTL

joelkamp wrote:It looks like Hardrock Cafe is renewing their lease and going to be doing some remodeling at US. This kind of surprised me, but I am glad to hear it as this is good news for US.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

Percich did say the Hard Rock Café just renewed its lease at Union Station and will be doing an extensive remodeling of the interior.

And Hard Rock was always one of the rumored tenants for Ballpark Village.

DeBaliviere wrote:

joelkamp wrote:It looks like Hardrock Cafe is renewing their lease and going to be doing some remodeling at US. This kind of surprised me, but I am glad to hear it as this is good news for US.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

Percich did say the Hard Rock Café just renewed its lease at Union Station and will be doing an extensive remodeling of the interior.

And Hard Rock was always one of the rumored tenants for Ballpark Village.

I wouldn't read to much into Hard Rock renewing their lease as far as the stability of Union Station in general. Hard Rock is not in the station mall area and has their own stand alone facility and pretty much operates independent of the mall scence. They also have surprisingly done well in spite of the decline at the Union Station mall. And last probably didn't have much of a choice for now, since Ball Park village is on the rocks and probably will not happen at least for 3 to 4 more years. Who knows what kind of a deal they got, just to stay. I bet you it was a real sweet heart of a deal.



What Francis didn't say is how many new tenants where moving into Union Station as there is nothing positive here to report. Or that the Hyatt had renewed their lease. She only said they currently have a lease and plan to honor it.



Bottom line is Hard Rock renewing their lease is not a sign of the tide turning. It is just a sign it made good sense for the moment. But it is good for Union Station that they did not move out as that would have been a real nail in the Union Station coffin.

^

I was thinking of it more in terms of the viability of Ballpark Village than that of Union Station.

Found this ad on Craigslist for May 28. My guess is that it is BBQ Station. But not sure that they can sell it, since they do not own anything in the place, except maybe the smoker. I really petty the sucker that buys this. The owner on this place is Sam who also, owned the diner that closed. Talk about swamp land. The health department has had some fairly bad inspections on this place.

Turn Key Restaurant for sale. It is located at landmark of St. Louis Union Station. 3000 sq feet. All equipments and inventory are included. Smoker(new $13K) ice machine refri. etc. Every thing is in working condition. Email or Call 314-680-0203 leave MSG for more information.

I don't exactly know how I feel about this development , in addition with the recent announcement of the closure of 600 + starbucks stores I wonder if the location at Union Station is on the short list.



From Joe Whittington

WE MISS THE HOOPLA? The Marriott website boasts of the St. Louis Marriott Union Station, One St. Louis Union Station, 1820 Market Street, which will open in December 2008. Back in February, we reported Marriott was eyeing the location, which currently is the Union Station Hyatt Regency.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

Prophett wrote:I don't exactly know how I feel about this development , in addition with the recent announcement of the closure of 600 + starbucks stores I wonder if the location at Union Station is on the short list.



From Joe Whittington

WE MISS THE HOOPLA? The Marriott website boasts of the St. Louis Marriott Union Station, One St. Louis Union Station, 1820 Market Street, which will open in December 2008. Back in February, we reported Marriott was eyeing the location, which currently is the Union Station Hyatt Regency.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

Well as predicted the move of the Hyatt is no surprise. And although the Marriott is not a Hyatt, they are a respected hotel chain but not a Hyatt. I think this will be viewed as another major tenant moving out of Union Station and the continued decline of this property. I guess that will also mean the closing of The Shed, which they had only had a short term lease and as for Einsteins, that is anyones guess as that was also owned by the Hyatt.



The matter of Starbucks closing stores and its effect on the Starbucks at Union Station is academic as they have been on the short list saying for some time they were not going to renew their lease which expires in 2010. Sometimes when it gets this close, they buy out their lease and move early. That was what the Discovery Store did.



I think you will see more announcements of tenants moving out of Union Station in the near future. Some it will be fall out of the Hyatt move.

This just shows how everyone's perceptions are different, but I put Marriott ahead of Hyatt. Now the hotel here was a Hyatt Regency which is more equivalent to a Renaissance probably, but nonetheless, I would consider this roughly an even trade. For downtown, it all works out well because the Admas Mark is now a Hyatt Regency and will be spruced up and downtown has not had a Marriott since the Pavilion became the Hilton at the Ballpark, so now we have most of the major hotel flags downtown.

lamiaposta wrote:

Prophett wrote:I don't exactly know how I feel about this development , in addition with the recent announcement of the closure of 600 + starbucks stores I wonder if the location at Union Station is on the short list.



From Joe Whittington

WE MISS THE HOOPLA? The Marriott website boasts of the St. Louis Marriott Union Station, One St. Louis Union Station, 1820 Market Street, which will open in December 2008. Back in February, we reported Marriott was eyeing the location, which currently is the Union Station Hyatt Regency.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

Well as predicted the move of the Hyatt is no surprise. And although the Marriott is not a Hyatt, they are a respected hotel chain but not a Hyatt. I think this will be viewed as another major tenant moving out of Union Station and the continued decline of this property. I guess that will also mean the closing of The Shed, which they had only had a short term lease and as for Einsteins, that is anyones guess as that was also owned by the Hyatt.



The matter of Starbucks closing stores and its effect on the Starbucks at Union Station is academic as they have been on the short list saying for some time they were not going to renew their lease which expires in 2010. Sometimes when it gets this close, they buy out their lease and move early. That was what the Discovery Store did.



I think you will see more announcements of tenants moving out of Union Station in the near future. Some it will be fall out of the Hyatt move.

Ok, so the closing of Starbucks at Union Station has now been officially anounced. NO suprise, long been predicted despite management at Union Station denying this will happen. As usaul Union Station management continues to ride their boat up the D' Nile River.



The closing of Starbucks at Union Station is probably a bigger deal for US than some of the other stores closing or even the Hyatt changing to a Marriott.



Many of the local workers in the area all came to this Starbucks in the morning and throughout the day for their daily java fix which in turn brought exposure to the other merchants. The closing of Starbucks will put a huge dent in the considerable everyday regular traffic, leaving only the tourist to support the merchants. I think the impact of the Starbucks closing at US will be considerably noticed. And who's to say how much longer Einstein will remain open. They were just recently notified by Union Station that they had to cease selling all their sundray items, such as cigarettes, snacks etc because a new store called Gateway News was opening and they have an exclusive on the 7-11 items. Word from Einstien is this will be a considerable blow to their every day sales.



Here's the link to the Fox New Article

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/New ... geId=3.2.1

lamiaposta wrote:No surprise, but quietly Ultra Lounge went out business last week at St Louis Union Station. I have lost count, but how many businesses is that this year to go out of business at Union Station and especially in that location. The mentality of management at Union Station seems to see how many stores they can lease selling the same thing and hopefully one of them will make it. Now they are working on how many people can sell Ice cream. With a new one opening in the food court to sell Ice Cream and cookies, they now have 5 places selling Ice cream, not counting the restaurants. What few people come to Union Station will continued to be overwhelmed by the how many choices they have of the same thing and the continued lack of substance and miss guided management.



As for the closing of Starbucks at St Louis Union Station, they do not know the exact date, but the employees have been told it will be sometime after August 2008.

St. Louis Centre all over again.



Let me guess, the name of the ice cream and cookies place is "Ice Cream & Cookies." At least, if it was in St. Louis Centre, that would have been the name. "Diamonds and Gold" and "Cookies and Cream" were my favorite SLC tenants.

dweebe wrote:I was down in Jacksonville Florida this weekend and visited their "Jacksonville Landing" area. Reminded me 100% of Union Station: mid 80's tourist trap/urban renewal attempt that is now on it's last legs. About half filled with"meh" bars, restaurants and shops. Pretty sad place.

that's the truth. I hate union station. its just a slightly bigger than average food court.

US management agreed to install two 50 foot Hard-Rock Cafe signs somewhere on the property. US management agreed to purchase them after Hard-Rock threated to leave in order to open up at Lumere. ...



My cures for restoring foot traffic to US would.



1. Bring back the trains. US should form a partnership with the National Museum of Transportation in Manchester and encourage the Museum to open a satellite facility downtown.



2. Open an Ice skating rink within the Shed. An ice skating rink I believe would be a nice addition and draw people during the winter months.



3. Open up the building; allow business to add more outdoor style cafes especially along 18th and 20th streets.



4. Free Parking!!! This is the single biggest hindrance to people visiting US. The parking prices are outrageous.



5. Start a downtown weekend farmers / arts – craft market. This market would be similar to Gypsy fair held nearby yearly.





That is all.

dweebe wrote:Is Houlihans still slated to close after summer?

Let me poke around on the closing of Houlihans and see what is going on. They got kind of quite on that. So haven't heard much lately. But they sure do not seem to be that busy, at least busy enough for the size of the place on a regular daily basis.



That is kind of how the rumor mill works here. First the rumor, then quite, then one day you walk in and the business has closed. But seldom is the rumor wrong.

Union Station is a failed mall, because it was not intended to be a mall, it was intended to be a train station. Instead of building that ugly new Amtrak station, we should have found a way to reroute traffic into union station.

goat314 wrote:Union Station is a failed mall, because it was not intended to be a mall, it was intended to be a train station. Instead of building that ugly new Amtrak station, we should have found a way to reroute traffic into union station.

Amen, brother!

dweebe wrote:I was down in Jacksonville Florida this weekend and visited their "Jacksonville Landing" area. Reminded me 100% of Union Station: mid 80's tourist trap/urban renewal attempt that is now on it's last legs. About half filled with"meh" bars, restaurants and shops. Pretty sad place.

Maybe, but the view is a million times better. I was there a couple times last year and there didn't seem to be many empty storefronts, but then I could see that place going into its own death spiral very quickly.



BTW, different topic, but people think St. Louis has a homeless problem? Visit Jax. I was staying at the Hyatt, which is just a few hundred feet from Jacksonville Landing. I was approached at least 5 times on the short walk there and back, each night, and propositioned twice. There were more than a couple used condoms and wrappers on the "boardwalk" as well.

Just came across this posting on Craigs list. Not absolutely sure who this is but the only Sports apparel store in the downtown area that fits this description is a store at St. Louis Union Station called Logos and Labels, which is currently on its 2nd owner and been at US probably about 20 years. They were here long before the other sports apparel stores at US.

22 years same high traffic premium location downtown St. Louis, that handles licensed and generic sports apparel and gifts. Currently, owner is absentee. An owner operator could better control inventory and potentialy cut cost of goods by 10%. The owner suggests adding custom screen printing and embroidered items, custom gift baskets and corporate gifts be added and marketed to stabilized and increase the income. 2007 gross sales is estimated at $300,000.

Hmm, why would they sell if things were great?

2007 gross sales is estimated at $300,000.

That ain't a lot.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:

lamiaposta wrote:

22 years same high traffic premium location downtown St. Louis, that handles licensed and generic sports apparel and gifts. Currently, owner is absentee. An owner operator could better control inventory and potentialy cut cost of goods by 10%. The owner suggests adding custom screen printing and embroidered items, custom gift baskets and corporate gifts be added and marketed to stabilized and increase the income. 2007 gross sales is estimated at $300,000.

Hmm, why would they sell if things were great?

Maybe they want to retire. Or do other things.

One would think so, but the person who owns this store is probably not retiring and owns a thriving silk screen business. I think it is more about poor sales numbers on the store, which is the feed back I get about their store sales. Look at the gross estimated sales $300,000 is just OK, but not for an absentee owner. Once you pay for help and management, losses, etc and then to boot your in the thriving Union Station. This looks more like a case, of why not try and sell, before it comes down to closing. At least you get out from under the Union Station decline with some change in you pocket. But $65M and no inventory might be a lot for a declining situation in Union Station. But then again if you are looking for a turn key situation. Who knows.

I was down in Jacksonville Florida this weekend and visited their "Jacksonville Landing" area. Reminded me 100% of Union Station: mid 80's tourist trap/urban renewal attempt that is now on it's last legs. About half filled with"meh" bars, restaurants and shops. Pretty sad place.

l



I agree but the Jacksonville waterfront place was new and of little visual interest to me. Our wonderful Victorian station at least has a great deal of architectural interest even if the shoppes fail.



Oddly enough I didn't see homeless around the public library there. We went in what was, I think , sor tof the back door but I ddn't see any and I was surprised by that.

Merchants at St. Louis Union Station received the following today at 10am



To: All Managers & Assistants



From: Frances Percich, SCMD

Senior Marketing Manager



Date: July 21, 2008



Subject: MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT



The management of St. Louis Union Station will be making a major announcement at a brief merchant meeting. The meeting will be held on today, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 2 pm on the lower level of the Train Shed next to Union Station Beauty Salon. We expect the meeting to last about 15 minutes.