urbanSTL

True_dope wrote:http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/reade ... 58044.html
KC must be doing something right. Wonder why things are slower in our downtown?

Part of the answer is that while not exactly stellar, they do have greater regional growth than what we enjoy.... downtowns across the nation are seeing residential interest and the more we can boost our regional growth the more projects we'll see downtown. Kansas City Streetcar also is being mentioned by developers as a key for moving forward and a willingness of the city to directly back some projects with equity has helped prime the pump. Office-wise it is still a bit of hit and miss with the eco-border wars still going on, but it appears things are starting to settle down a bit on that front.

i,Iive,to,draw wrote:Apparently Philadelphia's downtown (which they call city center) is having similar problems on getting job Growth in there CBD.

I think attracting jobs to the urban core is a national problem, and not just a STL problem.

http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/ ... -how-long/

The article is about the strong housing in Center City and the need to address potential problems as the cohort of young people begins to drop in the coming years and briefly mentions job creation as a concern, but you really have to go to the organization's website to get a better look at Philly's downtown jobs situation... they do say that aside from Comcast's plans for hiring thousands, they do have to work harder to retain/draw more office workers. (Of course, they've got tens of thousands more of them downtown than we do and many more thousands of residents so its still a very vibrant place.)

But what I really enjoyed was the ton of data and reports they've got t their site....

http://www.centercityphila.org/

Hopefully we'll see some more reports here now that the downtown organization has hired a research director. This project from the Center CIty folks was particularly cool.... it looks at a number of different employment nodes in various cities across the nation, including Saint Louis:

http://definingdowntown.org/

The maps feature is really cool and takes a look at employment and residential numbers for the node as well as 1/2 mi. and 1 mile tracts. It's 2011 data so a bit dated but still useful and nice to compare between cities. For downtown Saint Louis, it has 10,000 residents and 67,000 workers and for the 1/2 mile tracts (roughly Greater Downtown) it has 17,000 residents and 80,000 workers. This compares favorably to Cincy and KC, but well below Pittsburgh & even Milwaukee & Cleveland. Unfortunately, it doesn't have data for the CWE node, which would be nice to compare to some of the eds and meds disticts in other cities.

NYT takes a look at Cincy's growing downtown:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/reale ... iness&_r=1

^ Might as recognize Indy's downtown as well:

http://www.indystar.com/story/money/201 ... /24000905/

wow! I've seen with my own eyes growing residential in downtown Indy but this is something...

Downtown living is popping up nearly everywhere you look, and much more is coming.

By 2020, a surge of residential construction, mostly high-rent apartment buildings, will result in as many as 30,000 residential units in the area, according to projections by Downtown Indy, a public-private partnership that promotes activities and living in the heart of the city.

That compares to about 18,300 in 2010, the last time a count was done....

And it's not all spread out. Rather it is occurring in something that urban planners covet — density, or a significant number of people living and working close together. That's what gives a Downtown vitality, the group said.....

Who is buying all these pricey units? Much of the demand is being generated by young people making $90,000 and more — "the millennial crowd that every city is chasing," said Sherry Seiwert, president of Downtown Indy.

The group also said all Downtown construction — including housing, offices and commercial — adds up to 58 projects in the pipeline between now and 2017, with an investment of more than $1.36 billion. Of that, more than half, or about $714 million, is geared toward residential construction.

I don't want to discount the fair amount of rehab work we've got going, but we can't even get a freaking residential tower going up next to one of the most coveted entertainment brands in the nation. More high paying downtown jobs, please!

i,Iive,to,draw wrote:Apparently Philadelphia's downtown (which they call city center) is having similar problems on getting job Growth in there CBD.

I think attracting jobs to the urban core is a national problem, and not just a STL problem.

http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/ ... -how-long/

I'm not sure where to put this national report on core versus periphery job trends, but it shows how the core has really had a jobs comeback in much of the nation since 2007:

http://cityobservatory.org/wp-content/u ... r-Jobs.pdf

The report only goes through 2011 as its based on census data, but it does show some pretty impressive results for many cities like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Interestingly, while annual average job growth from 2007-2011 in our own core dropped - .5%, the drop in the periphery was actually higher at -.8%. I'm pretty sure job growth has improved even more in most cores across the country, although the comparative rate with the periphery may vary,

Anyone have $2.7 million to buy this surface lot and the ability to get quality infill financed?



http://www.colliers.com/p-usa1006852