Union Station is getting new retail and restaurants!



Now open:







KC Masterpiece Barbeque & Grill

314-621-5028



JL Model Raceways

314-941-3456





ESPN Sports Store

Coming April 2005



List of current tenants:



PICNIC EXPRESS:

All Star Diner

BBQ Station

Station Grille

Caf? Orleans

Quizno's Subs

Charley's Steakery

Sbarro

Panda Express

St. Louis Taco and Grill

Pita King

Subway

The Candy Station

St. Louis Coffee Roasters

The Fudgery

St. Louis Daiquiri

Mrs. Field's Bakery Cafe

Starbuck's Coffee

Pretzel Time

TCBY



SIT DOWN RESTAURANTS:

Aldo's

All Star Diner

BBQ Station

Hooters

Hard Rock Caf?

Houlihan's

Key West Caf?

Landry's Seafood House

Route 66 Brewery & Restaurant

Station Grille

St. Louis Roasters



RETAIL STORES:

All Tied Up

Imani's

Aussie Outfitters

Logos & Labels

Cardinals Clubhouse

Mark Anthony's Jewelry

Cardinals Rookie Clubhouse

NB Tween

Claire's Accessories

St. Louis Dry Goods

EZ Tees

Shades

Footlocker

Sports Avenue

Hat World

Walking Billboards

Autographs Plus

Dog On It

Beatles For Sale

Fat Sassy's

Best of St. Louis

The Flag Shop

Brookstone

Inspirations

The Body Shop

Making History

Bud Shop

Marquess Gallery

Medieval Legends

Perfumania

Choices Galore

Play & Learn

Choices Galore 2

Rock On

Cultural Vibes

Seen On TV

Dapy

Silver & Hide

Discovery Channel Store

The Teddy Bear Factory

Teens Plus

Hanging By A Thread

Photo Shop

Just A Second

Hard Rock Caf? Store

City Improv Comedy Club

Jump in the City

RailCruise America

SLUS Memories Museum

Union Station Caricatures



And of course THE HYATT Union Station and DRURY Union Station hotels.

that's fantastic news!

KC MAsterpiece was packed on Saturday night - it replaced Kriegers and the signage is very nice too. We enjoyed the food as well.

They have indoor / outdoor bars and seating.

matguy70 wrote:
Union Station is getting new retail and restaurants!



Now open:

KC Masterpiece Barbeque & Grill

314-621-5028

The following is from <A HREF="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... rf">Martin Van Der Werf's</A> column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on 04/26/2005 --



BASTED: <A HREF="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... 491D9B">KC Masterpiece Barbecue & Grill</A> has only four restaurants in the chain, but it is revving up to expand to more than 50, following the places where the barbecue sauce sells best. Consequently, the chain is bullish on St. Louis, planning to open up to 16 restaurants here.



"We think St. Louis is a very exciting market, because it doesn't have a lot of barbecue restaurants," said Richard Roffman, a senior vice president for the chain.



The chain has had a restaurant in Chesterfield since 1991 and closed a restaurant on Lindbergh in Creve Coeur more than a year ago.



The choices for its first two new locations have left some folks scratching their heads: Union Station and Northwest Plaza, which have been in considerable decline.



"We think we're getting in at a good time before that dramatic uptick downtown occurs," Roffman said of Union Station. As for Northwest Plaza, he said, "Can we build it for the right price? Yes."

The choices for its first two new locations have left some folks scratching their heads: Union Station and Northwest Plaza, which have been in considerable decline.

But that's what the post thinks of Union Station. The businesspeople think of it as getting in before the upturn; the Post thinks of it as considerable decline.

Well it is, until the sale closes.

Now if Union Station can only get their parking rates down to the level of "ridiculous" (they are currently on "ludicrous" level), they may just actually begin to attract the common passer-through every now and again.

Am I the only one who thinks that Union Station would best be served NOT as just another mall? (Even if it is a great mall?)



Why not try something along the lines of Chicago's Navy Pier?



This could include

-A Spectacular Children Play Area, with a Carousel, and other fancy rides.

-An area for a new concert venue

-An area for touring exhibits

-A classy theatre for plays, new plays or classic ones (Miller, Shakespeare, etc) (not touring musicals)

-Minature Golf, Bowling, Video Games

- Some select choice restaurants (Already done!)

- A new movie theatre, or a new IMAX theatre, or both....



All these things are lacking downtown. Maybe the new Bottle District will take care of these needs, but I just think it is a waste to spend time making closed MALLS downtown. If we are going to close it off, at least make it something worth while! Something radically unique to the area!

stlmike wrote:Am I the only one who thinks that Union Station would best be served NOT as just another mall? (Even if it is a great mall?)



Why not try something along the lines of Chicago's Navy Pier?



This could include

-A Spectacular Children Play Area, with a Carousel, and other fancy rides.

-An area for a new concert venue

-An area for touring exhibits

-A classy theatre for plays, new plays or classic ones (Miller, Shakespeare, etc) (not touring musicals)

-Minature Golf, Bowling, Video Games

- Some select choice restaurants (Already done!)

- A new movie theatre, or a new IMAX theatre, or both....



All these things are lacking downtown. Maybe the new Bottle District will take care of these needs, but I just think it is a waste to spend time making closed MALLS downtown. If we are going to close it off, at least make it something worth while! Something radically unique to the area!

All good points, as I said in another thread, US is 20 (eeek!, I remeber when it opened) years old, and has had little done to it in that time. I would love to see the whole space reimagined with better public space, less visable parking (maybe a garage on the west lots) and more relation to the surrounding neighborhood, ie; you can get to it easier from the street.



Someone earlier mentioned reusing it for rail, which is a nice thought, but with the realities of Amtrack I do not see that happening, that said, intergrating the new rail station should be a priority (if the new station ever gets here)

Don't know about an arcade, but there is an empty movie theater in the office area.

I thought it already had an arcade, and wasn't there a theater near the parking area? There's a comedy club there too.

Yeah, Sure... But the Arcade (I'm not sure if it's still there) and the movie theatre, were both kind of crappy, and those two are probably the least grand on this list. The Comedy Club I'm aware of and it is indeed a plus.

I saw Honey I Shrunk the Kids at that theatre, the film melted about 20 minutes in, and we sat there for 45 mintues as they fixed it. My only experience there, it was subpar.

Just called Union Station up to see about the ESPN Store and they knew nothing of it. Does anyone have any info about it?

ESPN's store was announced at the same time KC MAsterpiece restr. was announced. KC Masterpiece opened around NCAA and I haven't heard anything else about it.

I think the Union Station as mall thing is played out, and seeing as so many retail/entertainment districts are going to be coming on-line in the next years i think it's a good time to start considering other non-retail uses for the Station. I know other threads have broached the topic, but i think it would be interesting to hear out of the box ideas that completely reinterpret the space and grandeur of the Union Station complex and makes it something unique, not only downtown but in the region.



Here are two ideas I think would make Union Station a very cool and very unique experience:



1) Create a world class aquarium. It seems there's more than enough space for something cool and innovative to be put into place. I think a large scale aquarium would also be pretty unique for this part of the country, and draw in lots of tourists from the region.



2) Put in a natural history museum. Personally, my favorite museums as a kid were natural history museums. Nothing beats walking around a large dark complex with skeletons of long dead animals and dinosaurs and natural "scenes" showing scantily clad mannequins in various action poses. I don't think the Missouri history museum quite satisfies that need in St. Louis. I think this would be a great place to try it out.



3) Something i think would be pretty cool would be an indoor roller coaster. I don't mean the kiddie green worm variety, but a full fledged coaster that snaked through a large part of the complex, and used the tight fit and indoor atmosphere to it's scaring advantage.



Any other ideas?

ComandanteCero wrote:
3) Something i think would be pretty cool would be an indoor roller coaster. I don't mean the kiddie green worm variety, but a full fledged coaster that snaked through a large part of the complex, and used the tight fit and indoor atmosphere to it's scaring advantage.

You really got my attention with this idea.

I think the Ballpark village already has the Aquarium going. I have not seen anything concrete, but it seems like an obvious feature at this point, as I was reading some time back that St. Louis was the biggest Metro Area without an Aquarium.

Something kinda out there, but a world class indoor athletic facility. I want a track, bball courts, racquetball/squash/tennis, an ice skating rink, weight rooms, aerobic facilities, and a pool. basically what they have at the St. Peters Rec Plex, but downtown. With the hotel attached, you can host regional athletic competitions, and it would be a service for city residents. I think you'd have to charge a memebership fee for residents like they do at clayton's, but even at $20 a month it'd be worth it. With all that space you can have some stuff outdoors and indoors, maybe even a driving range underneath the shed. The city needs upgraded community rec centers, why not start with the largest hollow building in the city?

I agree, a facility like Chelsea Piers would be a great addition to downtown.

From Mayor Slay's blog:



Link



Monday, June 13, 2005

Union Station: Finally on Track





Union Station is a landmark ? the Grand Hall, the Head House, and the Train Shed are marvels of architecture and important artifacts of the golden age of American railroading.



And, they?re economic opportunities.



When the current incarnation of Union Station first opened in 1987, it was one of the Midwest?s retail and entertainment wonders. Think Galleria meets St. Louis Mills ? but with historic charm. In the past decade, however, the complex has fallen on some hard times, notwithstanding the continuing success of the excellent Hyatt Regency Hotel.



Today, there is much better news for Union Station.



The new owner of the property, St. Louis Station Holdings, has engaged Jones Lang LaSalle to improve and operate the property. And Jones Lang showed me some great plans for Union Station at the ICSC conference last month in Las Vegas.



They have good plans for the existing retail area.



Even more exciting, their plans call for the development of new retail and other elements on the property comprising the complex:



# a new cinema in a parking garage?the development of the parking garage will allow more intensive development of retail on the property

# four new retail anchors, each at 20-30,000 sq. ft.

# three or four new restaurants

# ten to fifteen additional retail stores

# a ?terrace event lawn?



It?s always a hard journey from plan to completion, but we already have the right Station.