There is environ-compliance work being done on Arcade Bldg.

rawest1 · PostApr 27, 2012#12012-04-27T19:19+00:00

Living next door in the Paul Brown Lofts, I was curious (and unfortunately prematurely excited) when I saw chainlink fences and construction equipment appear outside of the neighboring Arcade Building the past day or two. I just asked someone outside what the deal was, and they told me they're doing environmental compliance work to prepare the building for the market (it is currently owned by the city). The hope is some outside developer will buy it and rehab it. It looks to be a 60-80 million dollar project, according to the man I was talking to. I really hope this building is rehabbed someday, and not demolished. Its location is so great, just a skip and a hop away from Wash Ave, the MX, the convention center, CityGarden, etc. etc.

Here is the Built St. Louis writeup about the Arcade Building.
http://www.builtstlouis.net/arcade0.html

Here is the latest Post article I could find about developments surrounding it, going back to 2010
http://www.stltoday.com/business/articl ... 06494.html

JNOnSTL · PostApr 27, 2012#22012-04-27T20:04+00:00

I've also noticed that getting off the train every morning. The Arcade/Wright & the Chemical Building are 2 huge holes downtown. Not sure what can be done with the Arcade, though. I think the market for condos/lofts/apartments needs a breather. It would be nice to see it restored to something similar to its original purpose, which is urban retail, though that is a tricky industry these days. Downtown Atlanta (and other cities, as well) has a multi-storied Target in a similar-sized building (at least from my recollection).

stlien · PostApr 27, 2012#32012-04-27T21:15+00:00

It's the same size as the Jefferson Arms building so I imagine it'll probably be a $100 million project.

Kevin B · PostApr 30, 2012#42012-04-30T15:00+00:00

JNOnSTL wrote:The Arcade/Wright & the Chemical Building are 2 huge holes downtown.

True. Of course, there were plenty of businesses active in the Chemical Building right before it was closed to become "the Alexa." It would have been nice if the owners had secured funds for development or at least built a functional plan before kicking out several longtime businesses and creating that four-year hole...

Alex Ihnen · PostApr 30, 2012#52012-04-30T15:23+00:00

^ Same with the Jefferson, I believe.

south compton · PostApr 30, 2012#62012-04-30T15:24+00:00

stlien wrote:It's the same size as the Jefferson Arms building so I imagine it'll probably be a $100 million project.

FWIW, I've heard the Arcade is in surprisingly good shape considering its long vacancy. The structure is solid and the City sunk a couple million into weatherization/preventive maintenance over the last few years.

I'm not saying its in better condition than the Jefferson Arms, but I also don't think the $100 million reported for the Jefferson Arms can be accurate -- that would be way over $200k per apartment unit. Even with tax credits galore, I don't see how that deal would work.

moorlander · PostApr 30, 2012#72012-04-30T18:53+00:00

Why did we start a new thread for this?

Pyramid had plans for $105 million rehab of the Arcade (circa 2003). Despite the abuse from the previous owners in the 1990's the building is solid. Sure some of the stairwells aren't safe. And the elevators were dropped but as long as the water is kept out she's in prety good shape. I'm very excited for this to move forward.

stlien · PostApr 30, 2012#82012-04-30T21:13+00:00

south compton wrote:
I'm not saying its in better condition than the Jefferson Arms, but I also don't think the $100 million reported for the Jefferson Arms can be accurate -- that would be way over $200k per apartment unit. Even with tax credits galore, I don't see how that deal would work.

It's a complicated financing structure. Technically, with tax credits galore, the deal would work. Everything just depends on how much they get in credits. I won't be surprised if at least 40% of the costs are subsidized. We should be finding out soon.

rawest1 · PostMay 05, 2012#92012-05-05T00:35+00:00

moorlander wrote:Why did we start a new thread for this?

Because I didn't know there was already a thread about this building, and the forum's search engine searches for text in the threads, not thread titles, so it's hard to tell whether or not there's already a thread with, say, "Arcade" in the title.

Alex Ihnen · PostMay 07, 2012#102012-05-07T16:23+00:00

^ True.