urbanSTL

symphonicpoet wrote:This whole thread amuses me. In a good way, mind. Twenty years ago the complaint about downtown was that it was a wasteland after five, since there was virtually nothing there but offices. Now we want more offices. I think, in reality, downtown is a much healthier neighborhood than it has ever been in my lifetime. Is there room to improve? Sure. But I'm not altogether sure more offices is what it needs. I think slow, steady, organic growth that includes the continuing change of use is healthy. If businesses are in the county, fine. If they're in Cortex, great. If they're downtown, that's wonderful too. But it seems to me the biggest problem downtown, in general, is vacancy. And that's been steadily declining for twenty years, even if office vacancy has taken an upswing lately. Attracting and keeping business is certainly a worthwhile goal, but I for one don't much care what part of the region that business occupies, so long as it's here. And I don't care what's downtown, so long as it's something. Actually, a mix of uses is undoubtedly healthier than the sort of one-crop office monoculture that used to be there.

some good comments here but it almost is the polar opposite of what I said in the Clayton-MegaDowntown thread... without a doubt downtown is more multi-functional and has less vacant buildings than a few decades ago, but I firmly believe the CBD needs many more jobs and we can't get too comfortable with thinking tourism/entertainment/residential growth is enough. The way I'd put it is that addressing vacancy is important, but what you fill things up with can make a vast difference in the trajectory of a city. I'd much rather have the CBD filled with a strong office worker population with a comparatively small residential population... if we had that we'd have a much higher tax base for the city as a whole along with more residents, more retail and more visitors along with less vacancy. We'd have a much stronger core that lifts the whole city.

I think there is room for more everything as downtown continues to become more diverse, but the fundamental fact remains the more good-paying jobs there are downtown the more people will live there as well as surrounding neighborhoods. We need more corporate leaders to choose the Central Business District to maximize our city's (and region's) potential.

^ multiple cars on fire in a parking garage... looks like the one at 4th and Broadway across from the small Hilton.

She works for Post Dispatch

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/bu ... &_rdr&_r=1

Why Corporate America Is Leaving the Suburbs for the City
“We are going through a change in our work force, and we wanted to be where we could attract millennials,” Mr. Vergnano said. “This is a group that likes to be in an urban setting, with access to public transportation. They don’t want to be confined to a building with a cafeteria or be next door to a shopping center.”

When will the business leaders in St. Louis realize this? Yes, a few unfortunate crime stories made a lot of news, but overall, downtown is just as safe today as it has been over the last six years. Certainly Washington Avenue weekends can be addressed, but overall downtown is still the liveliest place to work during the day- even more so than Clayton! A coworker who just relocated downtown was SHOCKED that so many people were out and about at lunch time walking around downtown, city garden, the food trucks, restaurants, and tourists milling about. He had no idea. This is the sad state of most people's mindset in this region.

Corporate leaders in STL too focused on mega-downtown.


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^ Always conflicted on that... we need more emphasis on downtown but there also is so much new office well beyond. I'd be on board for some kind of joint effort b/w City, County and say Metro to have special incentives for corporations setting up shop near metrolink, e.g.

^^ think on the corporate front its mixed.

Obviously Montsano, RGA, Edwards Jones and Express Scripts have gone with suburban corporate campuses just as Bunge NA plans on doing. WWT settled on an island that might or might not be connected via a metrolink if county wins out but assume it was all about where the executives live. I think it was a disappoint to see Enterprise Rental pursue west county space for its IT department. That would have been a great addition for downtown.

On the other hand, Centene pursuing a big urban campus and biz journals keeps reporting that Microsoft is going to land in CORTEX and supposedly a big IT location for downtown which might be complete speculation. But believe KMPG has expanded its IT presence downtown and might have a bigger presence over time. My bet is Koman is going after them with their Cupples proposal.

^ we may have to be consigned to the thought that local companies just are on a different page and hope DT can launch more start-ups and lure companies with HQ other than here like KPMG... Momentum is a good example of a NY-based company that moved local operations downtown. Don't know if the local old-school country club corporate culture has modern urbanity in its bones.

Yep, listened to NPR this morning talking about GE's HQ pending move into downtown Boston and how a big part of the decision was fueled by where its work force will come from and what they want.. St. Louis I have to agree is sometimes its own world compared to national trends.. its about its current workforce and will go from there. Not all bad if your got a couple decades into your career & have family like myself and not all good for trying to expand and attract talent..
..
On one hand I think the one company that missed it was WWT IMO. On the other hand to defend WWT, I work with a lot of projects that are federal procurements through Corps of Engineers. Simple not a lot of innovation involved. Just a lot of understanding and experience on how system works. Can only assume with WWT with having a big chunk of revenues based on government contracts might be dealing with some pretty mundane items like I do or a step or two behind on IT advancements (working with tried and established platforms).

Why Corporate America Is Leaving the Suburbs for the City

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/busin ... thits&_r=0

hebeters2 wrote:Why Corporate America Is Leaving the Suburbs for the City

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/busin ... thits&_r=0

Must be the latest thing to write about in the papers. WSJ story on city centers success focused on Philadelphia

http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-more-ci ... 1470389405

^ that's a pretty good article and I think the discussion of many if not most cities becoming both richer in the central core and decaying in other parts reflects what's happening here as well... somehow we have to figure out how some of the momentum of the central core can spill out north of Delmar. And parts of South City are becoming poorer as well. I think like Pittsburgh, our small geographical size can be at an advantage compared to bigger recovering cities like Philly or Detroit since almost all of the city is just within a few miles of the prospering core, but we have so far to go to make it a reality.

^ Pleasant surprise that it wasn't behind a pay wall and pretty in depth article. Like you said, it was a good article as it not only looked at the center & trendy neighborhoods but what was the impact on in the neighborhoods around and beyond.

Someone noted that they would like to see a JW Marriot for downtown. Believe in the Milineum Hotel thread. Pretty good idea, but was thinking where would be a good spot for it? The botique hotels are going to be nice but been to a couple JW in last year or two and they just fit and add to downtowns

Personally, a decent size JW tower on Clark anchoring BPV corner would be a great spot. Go across street your at Busch, head west down Clark and your at Scottrade/Peabody/Union State, go north and your at convention center/wash Ave/Blues museum, go south your in Soulard, and finally head east and your on the Arch Grounds

Pretty much as an companion to the WSJ article, here is a Post-Dispatch article on how northern burbs are losing ground in the housing market while the central corridor is gaining...

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... um=twitter

That pattern is mirrored in other cities across the nation, said Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is studying St. Louis neighborhoods. The price rebound has been strongest in the richer areas — and in urban neighborhoods that are drawing millennials.

It has been weakest in areas hard-hit by foreclosures after the price bubble burst in 2007....

The biggest good-news story on the housing map comes in ZIP code 63110, a collection of racially mixed neighborhoods stretching from Forest Park to Tower Grove Park, between Hampton Avenue and Grand Boulevard in the city. Prices there were up 5 percent from 2007...

By contrast, North County is still suffering from the great housing bust....

“I personally believe there will be vacancy and abandonment in the northern suburbs,” said Todd Swanstrom, a professor of public policy at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who co-authored a study of neighborhood revival in St. Louis. “I’m very concerned about the imbalance of supply and demand.”

dredger wrote: Someone noted that they would like to see a JW Marriot for downtown. Believe in the Milineum Hotel thread. Pretty good idea, but was thinking where would be a good spot for it? The botique hotels are going to be nice but been to a couple JW in last year or two and they just fit and add to downtowns

Personally, a decent size JW tower on Clark anchoring BPV corner would be a great spot. Go across street your at Busch, head west down Clark and your at Scottrade/Peabody/Union State, go north and your at convention center/wash Ave/Blues museum, go south your in Soulard, and finally head east and your on the Arch Grounds

There seem to be a lot of hotels in this section of downtown along Market and Clark. From Broadway, you have Drury, Hilton Ballpark, Westin, the old Sheraton, and Union Station. Do you think additional hotel rooms would work? Seems like the Millennium hotel closing may have been a good thing for the market.

JW Marriot in Indy is a huge hotel with 1,000 rooms and huge meeting space; I don't think another monster is needed downtown but I would love to see a luxury hotel share a sleek tower with several floors of condos to add height. I think that could work in BPV.

edit... here's 64 condos that will be opening next year as part of a Four Seasons in Baltimore
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/bl ... -2017.html



looks like the condos will take up 8 floors of the 29 story tower... gimme please!

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis looking to fill 200 positions the next couple years. Believe it would be all downtown unless someone knows different. Nice pickup after VA/GSA decides to pull out of downtown.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... dreds.html

^ I'm not sure if these are new jobs on top of the relatively recent new jobs announcement,,, anyway, they also have space at 500 N. Broadway and it is great to see The Fed grow downtown.

I would have to think the amazing momentum created by Cortex, the CWE, Union Station, MLS, The Armory and even Centene, will lead to some big development Downtown, at some point. When that is, who knows. My biggest concerns remain the soon to be empty SBC tower, the empty Millennium and a few other vacant buildings. The SBC tower will flood the market with Class A office space. It still feels like we are in the early stages of an epic boom from the Arch to Clayton.