With a couple of recent retail openings and a slew of projects underway or in the pipeline it looks like Downtown West finally be getting some of its mojo back. Some of the projects include...

Projects Underway:
1902 Pine residential conversion (87 units)
CityView renovations of Plaza Square
2209 Olive commercial renovation
1424 Washington commercial renovation

Projects Planned:
2035 Lucas/2030 Delmar residential conversion (86 units)
1701 Locust (57 units + first-floor commercial)
2000 Washington (first floor commercial + 5 units)
2351 Market office renovation (Green Street)

So that is 87 units under construction + the CItyView renovations and 148 units planned on the residential side and some action on the commercial/office side as well. Of course other attractive opportunities like the Muni Courts, International Shoe, 1706 Washington and Jefferson Arms also are being marketed. Hopefully this bit of flurry with smaller-scaled projects will spread and eventually include one of the bigger buildings before long.

^ Downtown hasn't hit anywhere near its critical mass.... I agree that we're unlikely to see a lot of infill until we make more progress on historic rehabs simply because it is cheaper to do the latter. The key is whether developers will be able to demand enough in rents to cover the higher costs of new construction... so far we've seen some doubts about that but I think that can and probably will change within the next few years.

Also, as far as Downtown West is concerned, I believe Saint Louis Streetcar or BRT would bring more immediate benefit. Both N/S Metrolink and an Olive rapid transit are needed for downtown, imo.

Doing some digging around online and came across this:



Just a rendering from a few years ago? KAI created it but unsure if it's extremely outdated or not.

I'm just going to throw this out there and you guys can disagree with me.

Downtown West's future hinges on three unrealized thoughts about the Schlafly Tap Room.

1) I used to wonder what it would take for the tap room to feel like part of the Washington Avenue loft scene, and the easy answer always seemed to be the streetscape improvements. They suddenly die on 18th street as if one should turn sharply and head to Union Station because that's the edge of downtown. The feeling of emptiness at the end of Washington Avenue has to be addressed in the next streetscape update, at least as far as 20th. Why not go crazy though and extend to Jefferson and add an overhead gateway thing with lights?

2) Briefly when I thought the highway intersection might get redone and the Gateway Mall given a signature end of some kind, I thought the tap room might be part of a Union Station development area under NorthSide Regeneration. That obviously never happened, but it looks like the city is still holding onto that plan since it showed up in the NGA plan.

3) In the past decade since seeing Midtown wake up a bit, I've felt as if the tap room is the natural end of the Midtown Alley. The buildings between are beautiful and ready for rehab. The Wells-Fargo lunch hour is serviced by food trucks. If those trucks could justify storefronts on Locust and convince all those financial types to walk a few blocks for lunch, it would move the needle.


I could be wrong, but I think if any one of those three things could happen, then the other two would be far more likely. If I had to bet, I'd say Washington Avenue's residential population will probably tip the scale first. Until then, I'm just going to get an eerie feeling of expectation every time I visit the tap room and wonder why they can't get the same level of investment as the bottleworks. Seriously, Schlafly could buy out that whole block.

is the nextdoor building for sale?