Hotel ducks in St. Louis' future?
January 23, 2014 9:14 am • By Tim Bryant
St. Louis Post-Dispatch



A hotel lobby fountain full of tame ducks might be in store for St. Louis.

The company that owns the landmark Peabody Hotel in Memphis says it wants to spread the Peabody brand to several cities, including St. Louis.

An anchor of downtown Memphis, the Peabody is known for its ducks that each morning march across the hotel lobby, hop into the marble fountain and paddle around all day.

Cities on Peabody's expansion radar are Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans and … St. Louis.

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I can see the Peabody name atop the Millennium Tower.
That location would be perfect.

The Peabody in Memphis is truly wonderful, and I'm glad for them that they have the brand strength strong enough for them to consider opening up locations across the US. And very much, STL would be a great site for them.

Easy answer: Someone should propose the SW corner of Ballpark Village site.
- It's already anticipated as a spot of future BPV hotel.
- Great brand strength, especially in the Midwest for Cardinals fans driving north from Southern MO, TN, AR, etc.
- Established relationships between STL Cardinals & Memphis Redbirds (proximate neighbors to the Peabody).
- People would surely want to see the ducks when they come Downtown for ball games.
- The Memphis Peabody is red brick, which I'm sure they'd follow for a BPV location.
- Emerging demand pull from loss of Millennium Hotel in this part of Downtown; won't just take from the Westin next door.
- Instant credibility to BPV and its future phases; would be a great lure to companies considering building BPV office buildings.
- Cordish & Cardinals can split the costs with Peabody as a cooperative development, making it easier on all parties.

Cardinals & Cordish people: I bet you all read this site. Follow-up on this ASAP while their interests are strong.

BTW: the hotel pictured (Peabody Orlando) was sold last year and rebranded as a Hyatt. For now Memphis is their only location.

EDIT: Picture has been changed.

^A new high-rise structure would be nice, but I believe the article said Peabody Hotels was evaluating existing properties in those potential expansion markets.

How about The Jefferson Arms? That certainly would get rid of a long abandoned building.

Or could the Railway Exchange become a hotel with residential and ground level retail?

Gateway City wrote:What about AT&T Tower?

Way too big.

[Also, I think once AT&T Tower is on the market, it will get a corporate tenant (or corporate tenants) sooner than some people may think.]

My guess is they'd want to build something to their own specs. I never went in, but the Orlando Peabody seemed almost "Vegas" big when I drove by it. Remember though that Orlando is a completely different market and can support mega-hotels.



But if you go to Trip Advisor reviews you can clearly see it was an upmarket property.

I'm with Gone Corporate.
Peabody goes with new glass and brick tower in BPV and helps kick off that whole development, Millenium goes residential, Jeff Arms gets off the ground with Teach America (ha!) or something similar spurred on by SLU and the new MRB. CVS, OfficeMax and Dunkin Donuts goes on the ground floor of Railway Exchange.

Not an expert on marketing but doesn't marching ducks at every hotel dilute the Memphis brand. I've been to the one in Memphis to watch the ducks and it's a pretty big draw. If you start doing it everywhere my thought is the one in Memphis becomes less special.

I still hope they expand to St. Louis. The railway exchange gets my vote but millennium or new construction would both be cool as we'll.

dweebe wrote:BTW: the hotel pictured (Peabody Orlando) was sold last year and rebranded as a Hyatt. For now Memphis is their only location.

EDIT: Picture has been changed.

I think this pretty much cinches the belief that they are looking to extend their brand by utilizing historic properties similar to the Memphis flagship. If a grand lobby/ground floor a la Memphis is a priority, I bet they could do something spectacular with the Raliway Exchange. However, the rest of the building would seem a challenge for conversion and it is so huge it may need other uses as well, for example maybe Residences at the Peabody. JA might work as mentioned, but I also wonder about the Union Trust... I think it would be a bit smaller than Memphis but certainly a historic property.

But if at all possible, I think I'd pull for Railway Exchange as that property is such a challenge and will need every good, creative look it can get.... a future as a half-utilized data center just isn't worthy.

Looked at the Memphis Peabody closer on map. It's a 12 story, half block building. Pretty much perfectly describes the Jefferson arms. Makes sense, it was built as a hotel....

The Peabody is so "Memphis" that this is honestly a little surprising to me. The lore of the duck tradition has no relationship to any other city. I'd be interested to hear an urban Memphian's perspective. How could other cities pull off the twice daily speech and duck parade with the same pride and enthusiasm? The whole thing is about Memphis history and references Elvis, Tennessee Whiskey, and other southern staples. What's next, invite Tom Cruise for the opening ceremony and recreate the barbecue scene from 'The Firm' on the roof? Would we really want to build a new local tradition that is not a local tradition? In my opinion Memphis would benefit more from holding a monopoly on this one. So many locals' stories involve the Peabody from engagements to weddings to meeting celebrites, etc. If I were a Memphian, an increased frequency of outsiders saying "Oh yeah, I went to the Peabody and saw the ducks in STL last year" would p!ss me off as a person who is prideful of my city's assets. Many are already upset about the Blues Museum. That's a little different, however, as the history of the Blues spans the country, while the Peabody is truly a local gem. This is akin to Ted Drewes expanding their brand around the country.....maybe my potential shortsightedness is why I am not a business man.

This may call for a cocktail at the Peabody after work and ask some questions.

Forgive my ignorance as I'm not that familiar with the Peabody, but would a St. Louis Peabody have to include the ducks? I mean, I can tour Budweiser breweries across the country, but I can only see the Clydesdales in St. Louis.

shimmy wrote:Forgive my ignorance as I'm not that familiar with the Peabody, but would a St. Louis Peabody have to include the ducks? I mean, I can tour Budweiser breweries across the country, but I can only see the Clydesdales in St. Louis.

The Peabody in Orlando had ducks. Parading 5 ducks in/out of a fountain is a lot easier and cheaper than keeping a herd of horses that can weigh as much as a ton each.

My point was that not having the Clydesdales at the other breweries doesn't dillute from the Budweiser brand when you tour those facilities, though at the same time it makes St. Louis's feel like more of the flagship. Could Peabody have a hotel in St. Louis that maintains the high standard of their brand without the ducks, which could remain the draw at the flagship Memphis location?

^That would be my recommendation to them. Like I said I hope they expand their brand to St. Louis. But I don't see how having the ducks in St. Louis could be a good idea. Maybe something of a homage to the tradition would be appropriate like a fountain in the lobby with a duck motif. Maybe even an occasional traveling duck troop which would visit St. Louis occasionally. But the daily duck walk will never be to St. Louis what it is in Memphis but it could damage the novelty of the one in Memphis. Again I'm not a marketing expert but this just seems too obvious to me.