urbanSTL

That's a big bean bag chair (last photo)!

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I visited back in December, it's a nice place. I will have to wait until a unit opens up to live there though.
It's a amazing place to live there if people can afford it!


Witnessing and being part of Saint Louis history is one of the best things to witness.

Disheartening to think that over 2.25 years since tenants moved in (let alone units being marketed and leases being signed) not all of the original units have been leased. Curious though, considering The Arcade was fully leased (pertinently all of the market rate apartments) within just a few weeks of move-ins starting.

^ Is it just a difference in pricing? Hold the prices higher, even if it means having a few vacant units?

Differences in pricing and they only offer 1 bedrooms in OPOP


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My take is that if there are only two units available that's pretty solid... some of the 130 or so units have surely turned over since opening so it's also not entirely clear to me that these particular two were never leased. Anyway, it appears it has 95%-plus occupancy, so bring on the next project, please!

STLrainbow wrote:My take is that if there are only two units available that's pretty solid... some of the 130 or so units have surely turned over since opening so it's also not entirely clear to me that these particular two were never leased. Anyway, it appears it has 95%-plus occupancy, so bring on the next project, please!

The next project should be rehabbing the Chemical Building. Of the Arcade Building filled up really quick, that one should to.


Witnessing and being part of Saint Louis history is one of the best things to witness.

^ looks like the next big project to get going will be the Monogram Building at 1706 Washington. After that I guess it's anyone's guess... perhaps we'll get good news on the Chemical, RR/X or Jefferson-Arms, but my bet is on the Mercantile Building, whose owner can get things moving pretty quick and w/o going through the incentives/tax credits route. I hope we get more units under construction soon as we're pretty much looking at a 2018 opening at the earliest for anything big at this point.

^ Can't help to think that Tower at OPOP adds some legitimacy for a new BPV residential tower

I also wonder if the developers of the Mongram Building at 1706 Washington will take a seriously look at proposing a second infill tower next door on the surface lot that came with 1706 now that all the dust has settled over their play to get a continuous block for themselves and the nonsense of them expressing the need for a ground floor retailer.

^ I'm not sure the rents that the OPOP Tower commands would be enough to support the construction of a similar one downtown... my assumption being that the Chicago firm that completed it got the core building at a bargain rate from the Roberts' Bros. (along with their other properties) and thus was able to finish off a nice product with rents that while definitely on the higher-end of the market, are still pretty reasonable.

But while another downtown new luxury tower may not be a slam dunk in general, when it comes to Ballpark Village I think that location and association with the Cardinals would command top-of-the-market rents and probably could attract a fair number of luxury condos.

Going back over the posts in this thread, it seems there were 50% leased in 6 months (with 25% vacant and 25% having work done) and about 80% leased after a year (again, not all units were available right away). It seems to me that this is a pace that could justify new construction, but maybe not a high rise tower like OPOP. I do think a 10 story building would be easy to fill if it is in the right location downtown. The flip side to this is that we only have a finite number of people that want to live in condos and we are seeing multiple projects in the CWE and Clayton, so I can certainly understand the reservation a developer would have. I do wonder if the pros have crunched the numbers and would love to hear what they would like to see before moving forward downtown.

181 units 95% leased. That's amazing! Makes you wonder why we aren't seeing proposals for more new construction high-rise apartments downtown.

Downtown apartments sell for $35 million
Mar 13, 2017, 12:14pm CDT

Brian Feldt

.....The two properties, which are located in the Old Post Office Plaza (OPO) near the intersection of Locust Street and 8th Street, have 181 apartment units and an appraised value of $10.3 million, according to city records.....
.....According to CBRE, the buildings are 95 percent leased."


http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... j=77636071

^It cost $50+ million to build (The Roberts are reported to have invested $50 million before the interior build-out was even completed), and just sold for under $35 million (given that the lofts buildings was included in the sale). That's why you don't see more new construction high-rise proposals.

^ right; the rents there, while among the higher end for downtown, are discounted from what they'd be if the uncompleted project wasn't picked up by the Chicago developers for a song and dance. But I still think BPV tower will be a big success and the results there will give us a better clue as to whether others may follow elsewhere in downtown

That said, I think low-rise new construction could start to become economical - where you've got a concrete base with 4-5 floor of wood-frame construction above. Plenty of space in DT and DTW for that scale of infill.

^ I think you're right and there is so much potential for Downtown West infill.

Back to the sale, this article says Urban Street put $22M into the tower after purchasing it at auction in 2012...

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

they paid $16.5M for the entire bundle of properties (the tower, Mayfair Hotel, the Locust St. trio and Orpheum Theater) so I think they did okay with their investment here. Looks like they have nothing left downtown at the moment but wonder if they'll try and find something else; I believe these are the guys that are tackling the Crestwood Mall.

I know it's wrong to bring up an old thread, but I thought I would like to ask a question and give an update.

Does anyone know why the concrete on the West side of the building is cracking? It looks pretty bad to me. I know this has been an ongoing issue but ina picture I took in November to now, more cracks have appeared and others have gotten longer.


On another note, 5 units are available right now with a few more coming online September 1st. The leasing office lady says that interest has been fairly high and that they are planning on increasing their Facebook ads to draw more interest.

chaifetz10 wrote: Well, in general there are only two types of concrete:  1) concrete that's cracked and 2) concrete that will crack.

Unless you're living in ancient Rome and count on concrete having absolutely no tensile strength. 

Are there any images of these being installed? 

chriss752:
Does anyone know why the concrete on the West side of the building is cracking? It looks pretty bad to me. I know this has been an ongoing issue but ina picture I took in November to now, more cracks have appeared and others have gotten longer.

See kids, this is why you want to avoid exposed reinforced concrete shear walls in high-rise buildings.  From Google Maps, it looks like there are similar cracks on the east elevation.

^It is cast-in-place concrete.  And as others have noted, concrete will crack, from shrinkage, and gravity and lateral loading, especially shear walls, often despite all reasonable precautions.  It is one of the biggest sources of litigation in the building design industry.

My guess would be that these are simply fine shrinkage cracks, opened up a bit by stresses from lateral loads, which are gradually being accentuated by deterioration of paint and accumulation of dirt and mildew along the cracks (they obviously make nice little tracks for rainwater running down the side of the building).  Given this building's history, I doubt those walls have been re-painted since it was finished.  That said, it does warrant a close inspection, and should be monitored after the cracks have been sealed and the walls repainted.

Occupancy numbers update...

According to the property website, 3 units are available now. An additional 3 are available on July 1st. So of the 128 units in the building, 122 are leased (or 95%). Pretty solid number. An additional 12 units will become available throughout August and September. If none of these 18 units are filled, occupancy will sit at 86%. Still a healthy number. The makeup of these soon to be available (July-September) units are...

• 3 Studios
• 15 One Bedrooms

Between this and One Cardinal Way (sitting at 65% right now), I think more new construction apartment buildings will do good in Downtown. The thing I believe that's holding OPOP Tower back from being 100% leased is the Chemical Building sitting vacant. Redevelop that and maybe add a few more neighborhood amenities and surely this building will be at 100%. Other than that, I'm glad to see that this is still a solid anchor to the Old Post Office area of Downtown. Hopefully the other nearby apartments are doing well (705 Olive (Laclede Gas Building), Arcade, Paul Brown, Level on Locust and the few at Hotel Saint Louis). 

While on the subject of nearby apartments, the Lofts at OPOP (sister property to the Tower) website says that there is one unit available and that's a one bedroom on the 4th floor. So that leaves 52 units occupied (or 98%).