Greater STL inc has finally hired a VP for downtown and he comes from New Orleans. I am going to be meeting with him hopefully soon.
'We're on life support": Downtown St. Louis business booster bolts for Grand Center (STLToday)
A lot to unpack here. Sadly, what Aaron Perlut says is painfully obvious to anyone who is familiar with downtown now vs. 5 years ago... It's important to note that all downtowns (well, most) have struggled with similar issues as ours to varying degrees since start of the pandemic, but it's hard to deny that downtown St. Louis is especially desolate with a few sporadic exceptions.
I agree that townhome/rowhouse infill in the peripheral blocks surrounding the CBD is key to creating a contiguous, walkable urban core. Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GRAND PLANS TO CREATE PUBLIC ART ALL AROUND DOWNTOWN??? Lots of consultants and lot of hoopla about this a few years ago, but hardly anything to show for it.
Thoughts?
A lot to unpack here. Sadly, what Aaron Perlut says is painfully obvious to anyone who is familiar with downtown now vs. 5 years ago... It's important to note that all downtowns (well, most) have struggled with similar issues as ours to varying degrees since start of the pandemic, but it's hard to deny that downtown St. Louis is especially desolate with a few sporadic exceptions.
I agree that townhome/rowhouse infill in the peripheral blocks surrounding the CBD is key to creating a contiguous, walkable urban core. Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GRAND PLANS TO CREATE PUBLIC ART ALL AROUND DOWNTOWN??? Lots of consultants and lot of hoopla about this a few years ago, but hardly anything to show for it.
Thoughts?
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His firm moved to Grand Center long ago, so this nonsense that last week or 2 weeks ago employees car getting broken into was the reason is silly, especially when car break ins are increasingly frequent in grand center.
Again I am down here every single day and I’ve been to 20+ downtowns since covid, what doesnt get reported is that every single day 100,000-200,000 (depending on what’s going on) people are in and out of downtown to see a game, concert, work, visits to the arch, union station, city museum, blues museum, attend a conference etc and they have a good time and go home
Again I am down here every single day and I’ve been to 20+ downtowns since covid, what doesnt get reported is that every single day 100,000-200,000 (depending on what’s going on) people are in and out of downtown to see a game, concert, work, visits to the arch, union station, city museum, blues museum, attend a conference etc and they have a good time and go home
LAND VALUE TAX!!!!!! More specifically, flip the current Land/Improvement ratio for real estate taxes on their head and gradually phase out the improvement portion and increase the land portion for revenue neutrality. This will make buying/holding land cost prohibitive without a plan to develop it. Bye bye surface lots and slum lords. Here's a good primer from Strong Towns:quincunx wrote: ↑Nov 16, 2022How do you get land speculators to sell for cheap?
StL, because of its clearly defined boundaries (we're landlocked folks), makes it a perfect candidate for an LVT. The problem's are purely political, namely that it would require approval from the MO General Assembly, which hates us and want us to fail. On the other hand, no less a MOGA influencer than Rex Sinquefield supports an LVT, at least in theory (don't trust that guy for a minute). So maybe its possible...?
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Told you. (cross is the managing partner of the firm in question)
Our local media is trash, plain and simple.
The BJ was running four or five stories about downtown crime the other day, largely based on the PD reporting via Mr. Perlut.
This is their agenda, and then they wonder why no one wants to go downtown.
There was a letter to the editor in the paper a couple weeks ago, it didn’t particularly stand out, but one comment stood out to me:
The BJ was running four or five stories about downtown crime the other day, largely based on the PD reporting via Mr. Perlut.
This is their agenda, and then they wonder why no one wants to go downtown.
There was a letter to the editor in the paper a couple weeks ago, it didn’t particularly stand out, but one comment stood out to me:
https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/column ... adf16.html“They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say ‘[Expletive], it’s raining.’”
STL's media is so negative - you wonder why it runs off in civic pride.
I look at other city Business Journals and Newpapers and they promote healthy news for their community for the most part. In STL our business journal has really suffered in the past 5 years or so. The woe-is-me syndrome has got to stop! Every article about Lufthansa and their successes in STL - ends in "STL hasn't had TATL continental service since American cut service an the hub. Even though that was almost 20 years ago - an entire generation of young adults ago - the media here always ends on a negative note. It's crazy. If anything - the media here is at fault for perceptions of an dying urban core - and a slow growth metro area. Really I cannot stand it anymore.
[go read KC or Cincy or Indy or Pittsburgh journals or news medias - nothing like ours!]
I look at other city Business Journals and Newpapers and they promote healthy news for their community for the most part. In STL our business journal has really suffered in the past 5 years or so. The woe-is-me syndrome has got to stop! Every article about Lufthansa and their successes in STL - ends in "STL hasn't had TATL continental service since American cut service an the hub. Even though that was almost 20 years ago - an entire generation of young adults ago - the media here always ends on a negative note. It's crazy. If anything - the media here is at fault for perceptions of an dying urban core - and a slow growth metro area. Really I cannot stand it anymore.
[go read KC or Cincy or Indy or Pittsburgh journals or news medias - nothing like ours!]
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The Biz Journal employees are working from home because one of their employees was car jacked.
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KSDK Ch, 5 ran with the "Soccer fans extra vigilant due to car break ins" angle today. Fear sells and they sell hard.
This out-of-town Real Estate Journal really rips on Downtown STL, raves about the suburbs, and totally ignores the rest of the City:
https://rejournals.com/how-strong-is-th ... -st-louis/
https://rejournals.com/how-strong-is-th ... -st-louis/
Downtown has its blemishes, but they basically wrote an article based on this Fredericks guy's prevailing narrative in the friend bubble he lives in and not fact. It's unfortunately a published example of the perspective many sheltered St Louisians have of the city in general. Our Business Journal would love this piece...framer wrote: ↑Nov 18, 2022This out-of-town Real Estate Journal really rips on Downtown STL, raves about the suburbs, and totally ignores the rest of the City:
https://rejournals.com/how-strong-is-th ... -st-louis/
From an opposite perspective, I attended the condo board meeting for our loft in DT West last night. The consensus amongst all resident owners (I own but now reside in South City) was that DT, specifically DT West, is on the cusp of a meteoric rise and will continue to see a wave of investment. The conversation was dominated by how we can protect our investment there and ride this wave by increasing owner occupied units to avoid the cautionary tale across the street (Eli Walker).
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omg thanks for sharing that truly awful piece, framer. I'm going to have to tweet about this later.
Update: Well, I tweeted about it. I don't know what's up with that Armstrong Teasdale attorney but clearly he was not engaged in sober analysis and seemed more agenda driven (as someone suggested perhaps trying to boost his own suburban clients).
Update: Well, I tweeted about it. I don't know what's up with that Armstrong Teasdale attorney but clearly he was not engaged in sober analysis and seemed more agenda driven (as someone suggested perhaps trying to boost his own suburban clients).
So any tibdits from the Bizjournal incentive article. I assume the $240 million Downtown West which I assume is the AHM development (including the wood frame tower)
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ntown.html
Tax incentives for five large redevelopment projects, including future Cortex district development and a $240 million Downtown West project, were advanced by a committee. Here are the details of the bills that now go to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ntown.html
Tax incentives for five large redevelopment projects, including future Cortex district development and a $240 million Downtown West project, were advanced by a committee. Here are the details of the bills that now go to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen.
The Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee voted “do pass” on a series of projects, including:The projects will have to be approved by the Board of Aldermen. The percentage of tax abatement is based on the assessed value of the incremental improvements.
- An extension of Cortex’s existing tax-increment financing to allow for a residential expansion;
- Five Downtown West projects proposed by AHM Group, centered around new apartments in historic buildings and a mass timber apartment tower;
- The Preservation Square affordable housing redevelopment already under construction in north St. Louis by developer McCormack Baron Salazar;
- The apartments proposed to be built on top of the historic Reliance Building in the Central West End by Pier Property Group; and
- The $30.5 million renovation of Hillvale Apartments in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood in north St. Louis into new affordable housing units.
Downtown West apartment projects
The committee advanced up to 10 years of tax abatement for the mixed-use redevelopment AHM Group proposes on five separate sites in Downtown West in the Locust and Washington Avenue area.
The projects are still in the schematic phase, with the final number of residential units, office, retail and commercial square footage and parking counts to be determined, but apartment projects would be a mix of market-rate and affordable units, said AHM Principal Brian Pratt in a presentation to the committee.
The plans call for parking garages on surface parking lots to create more urban density and encourage an 18-hour neighborhood, Pratt said. Flexible, midsize office space could attract small and medium companies to the city, he added.
The centerpiece project at 2011-23 Locust is a $140 million, 22-story mass timber apartment tower, which Pratt said is much more environmentally friendly than building from concrete or steel. The project would reuse the vacant and historic Lambert Building at 2101-07 Locust as flexible office space, an estimated $13.5 million conversion. The historic Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. building at 2109-15 Locust would be converted into apartments in an $18 million project.
Some projects would be new construction on infill sites. At 2024 Locust, a new $20 million apartment building would be constructed. The 2100 block of Washington Avenue would be turned into apartments and a parking garage, at an estimated cost of $40 million.
The abatement would be 90% of the assessed value of incremental improvements created over 10 years.
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If you take public transit you can’t get car jacked.downtown2007 wrote: ↑Nov 17, 2022The Biz Journal employees are working from home because one of their employees was car jacked.
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Some fun facts on Downtown v. Clayton. I might also add that Downtown STL has among the highest, if not the highest, downtown professional sports teams attendance in the nation. (And MLS will only add to that.)
^ I also thought that blogpost was bullsh*t and that the Armstrong-Teasdale guy made an ass out himself, but I share an equal disdain for St. Louisan’s that can’t look past Clayton towards our real competition.
70+ shots fired Downtown and no one is talking about it!! We’re part of the problem for not acknowledging what’s wrong!!
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
^ I saw it in the paper today. Not sure what ranting on UrbanSTL is going to do to solve anything…
Actually I am sure…absolutely nothing.
Actually I am sure…absolutely nothing.
But ignoring the elephant in the room won't help either. The continuing crime problem Downtown is putting all the recent progress at risk. This is a very serious problem which must be acknowledged.
I’m not ignoring the elephant in the room.
It’s literally all anyone talks about in St. Louis. Non-stop. I’m just saying that the circular arguments that populate this site won’t solve anything.
It’s literally all anyone talks about in St. Louis. Non-stop. I’m just saying that the circular arguments that populate this site won’t solve anything.
Actual crime and the perception of crime are both big problems in St. Louis in general (not just downtown) and something must be done. With that said, these problems are not unique to St. Louis as many in our local media would lead us to believe. Just Google downtown "any major city in America" shooting and you will see a slew of recent articles about shootings and killings in their respective CBDs. The problem is that America is generally just a very violent and socially stratified society. It's almost impossible to stop gang and drug related killings on a macro-level without a major change in federal policy and collective culture.
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Or just strive to develop a society that values life a little bit more….