urbanSTL

Well at least the property is getting some use... as a staging area for the concrete trucks waiting to make their deliveries at the Park East Lofts. There must have been at least 20 of them in the, um, parking lot the other morning.

Not necessarily. Rallo has been using the site to was out concrete trucks from the Park East Lofts construction and store some stuff. Not to say it's not starting either.

so this will only be 6 stories now?

Where have you been for the last year? It's actually -2 stories right now.

The new <I>West End Word</I> (out today) finally has an update on the CityWalk project:



http://www.westendword.com/NC/0/1108.html

Plans to build a new apartment building at the corner of West Pine Boulevard and Euclid Avenue are still on, although the project’s start date has been pushed back and the plans have been scaled back.



Bruce Mills, principal of Mills Properties, said he is “very confident” that the groundbreaking for a 160-unit apartment complex called CityWalk on Euclid will be in the first quarter of 2009. This time last year, the company was anticipating a June groundbreaking for a 188-unit complex.

Just a reminder of what this project will look like:

Why the clock?

^Artistic constipation.

DeBaliviere wrote:Just a reminder of what this project will look like:

According to the article, the project has been "scaled back" from 188 to 160 units, so it will probably lose a story, and some of the premium material on the facade.

I don't mind the clocktower, but I don't like the way the top floor is set back. I'd prefer a straight rise, with a nice, heavy cornice defining the roofline. I know it gives the upper units a terrace, but it spoils the massing of the building.



But hey, it's not my money.

^Yeah, I've always thought the top, particularly the west elevation, looked a little cheesy, like something you'd see in Vegas.

I have no problem with this project - but WHY THE CLOCK is right. So St. Chuck looking. Look at the rendering without it - nice - with it ... well you know!

without the clock tower and the top floor-it becomes boring at best and i'll take that over the rendering...

An article in the Post today said the final design should be ready by the end of the year.



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

Hate to say it, but "I told you so."

STLgasm wrote:Every time I pass by this hole, it infuriates me. The Mills owe us an update.

I'll tell you what else infuriates me- I hate how the city wastes no time demolishing buildings for plans that are never realized. It's apparently a longstanding practice, because long before the Doctors' Building was razed, the same thing happened with the old Sears on South Grand and the old Famous-Barr at Kingshighway and Chippewa. And while the building at Washington Avenue and 14th Street was no huge loss overall, there was really no point in bringing it down since Skyhouse isn't going forward either.



Meanwhile, there are countless gas stations, car dealers, and fast food fry pits that remain standing years after they were abandoned. I'd love to be able to demolish some of those buildings and make the sites more attractive for appropriate infill, but for some reason most of them are left standing for years while other (usually historic) buildings are demolished first with questions asked later (unless you're SLU, in which case no questions are asked at all). I just don't get it.



I'd like to believe this corner is too valuable and important to sit vacant for too long. However, I thought the same about the old Southtown Famous-Barr, and it sat vacant for nearly a decade until we got a lame and half-occupied strip mall in its place, so who knows. I'll keep my fingers crossed, though, because Mills could have an easier time getting financing together for apartments than condos in this environment. Like so many other things in this economy I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Grover wrote:I've been told by a couple different people that financing is holding up this project. IMO - if and when the credit markets calm down a project like this will get built quickly. Of course there are other avenues to explore for funding as well.

Even if financing could be arranged, would this project still be given the green light in view of the units unsold at the Chase, 4545, and to a lesser extent the Park East Lofts?

I suppose, as was mentioned above, it will be easier to get credit to build rental property than condominiums.

For starters, it is rental. That alone makes it a different animal than a condo building. Second, if financing can be arranged, the only thing that could stop a project is some sort of architectural review, of which this project does not have to go through. So, if they can figure out how to do the financing, this one will go up.



In the mean time, the least they could do is pump the water out of the hole when it rains.