urbanSTL

^ I haven't been to the Arsenal store in a while. They remodeled about 1/3 of the Loughborough store, and that section looks nice. But the rest just feels depressing, IMO. For mid-grade stores I guess I'm comparing to the Wegmans, Food Lions, Safeways, and Giants that I've shopped at while living in VA (Richmond/Charlottesville) and CO (Boulder). Granted I only sampled a handful of them, but none of them felt as depressing as Schnucks. Again, IMHO. My spouse (from Richmond) feels the same. And I know that many people can't afford to shop at Whole Foods (myself included these days) but WF really nailed the aesthetic. Compared to any of the mid-tier stores, shopping at WF is a pleasure. I don't understand why more of the mid-tier stores don't emulate WF's decor. In terms of local chains I think Dierbergs is pretty good but, again, they don't seem interested in opening any city stores.

Anyway, I don't want to derail this thread any more so that's all I'll say.

I think the problem is that the S. Grand Schnucks is just a lot older than most. Twenty years ago it was one of the nice ones. The Hampton Village store is pretty nice. The Gravois store is fine. The trouble is that the other larger chains mostly keep folding up or moving out of town. There are some other smaller options. Strouds is local, if you want upscale. I haven't been there in years upon years, but I recall them being nice. Target, being a big box, isn't going to open that many locations in an area as small as the city. For BPV I'd say the competition is Strouds, Fields Foods, and out of town.

But it's funny that you'd think of Schnucks as crummy. In CoMO (which I am presently visiting) the locals seem to think of them as the fancy expensive store. (With the competition being Gerbes, Hyvee, Mosers, Aldi, and a few immigrant mom and pops. And there are plenty of those in St. Louis as well. And s variety of discount grocers and specialty markets. But BPV is getting upscale chain. There really are no other options. So . . . Schnucks is fine by me. This won't be your neighborhood Schnucks. It will be more fresh and trendy and hip. Sounds to me like they want a piece of that action. (Can't let Strouds have it all. Or . . . *gasp* Denver.)

^I think you mean Straub's.

I have never seen so much within-chain-variation-in-quality as in Schnucks.
You do see a massive difference between say the Clayton/Arsenal stores and the SoGrand-Gravois/CWE ones.
We used to go to the South Grand-Gravois Schnucks, but stopped doing so after there was a parking lot shooting while we were inside the store.

^ Very true- When i worked at MoDOT in Chesterfield i went to the Schnucks at Clayton Rd/141 and the diffrence from even Hampton Village was stark. hard food flooring in the wine section, the deli counter had a sandwich shop and there was an actual sit down counter with a menu of various things you can order, kind of like the CWE whole foods.

One Cardinal Way from Hotel Saint Louis' FORM Rooftop Bar

The Mayor wrote: ↑

Nov 05, 2018

Any new progress shots? Haven't seen any in quite some time. Really wish Paric would just make the cams public lol.

I plan on heading down tomorrow afternoon.

The Mayor wrote: ↑

Nov 07, 2018

^ Looking good. Thanks for the update. Can't wait to start seeing some steel. That panoramic is going to look good once things progress a bit more.

Steel will go up on the office building and will form the frame for the Culinaria and Fitness building, so not much, but it will be pleasant to watch. This panorama shot will look better in another month.

Should look pretty neat going up either way.

I found these 2 new renderings on Ballpark Village's redesigned website. One is of the Live Hotel and Pennant Building with a significantly redesigned fitness/market building with a rock wall outside and funky glass. The Rawlings Logo has also made a return.



Then there is this one. It is under the office building page and shows the Pennant Building's lobby looking North. The first leak of Phase 3.


These two renderings, that I once assumed were the lobby of the office building, is in fact the mezzanine lobby from the parking garage hence the shorter ceilings.

^Nice catch! And thank you!

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Nov 10, 2018

^Nice catch! And thank you!

Thanks and You're welcome.

I have reached out to some people inside of Cordish, especially one woman who has gotten back to me a lot, about the lobby render and the building outside. No response yet.

Just thought I'd share the A's plans for a new "Jewell Box" ballpark in Oakland, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (only 34,000 seats, BTW).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/as ... spartandhp

framer wrote: ↑

Nov 28, 2018

Just thought I'd share the A's plans for a new "Jewell Box" ballpark in Oakland, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (only 34,000 seats, BTW).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/as ... spartandhp

Framer, San Fran blog site "socketsite" commentary on the proposed Jewel box stadium. First preference was a location next to Downtown Oakland/Chinatown/Lake Merritt area. Thought it was a great choice but even less seats. Socketsite is like a hybrid of nextstl and urbanstl out here in bay. But a lot of commentary on the Jewel box.

The area around Howard Street Terminal is similar to Cupples warehouse district in regards to being an old industrial area (still majority light industry) but without some of the great brick Cupples warehouses that were saved.

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2018 ... lpark.html

^The stadium itself seems interesting, if small. The buildings around it strike me as somewhat uncomfortable from that rendering, but it's not what I would call a great rendering. Not a lot of detail. Maybe not the most flattering angle. Surely not the one from which people would typically see it. From ground level I would guess the stadium will look like a pretty standard contemporary glass thing, not unlike some of the proposed stadiums here. Better than the riverfront thing the Rams would have gotten if they'd stayed. The "public park" along the top of the thing is a strange concept. I'm curious if it would be free and open on game days. (The answer would almost have to be no, I would think. But maybe I'm wrong there.) But I can't even really quite make out what the cladding materials are supposed to be on any of the surrouding stuff. Better renderings are really called for. But really, the stadium may be the only thing that's not filler. Probably a phased project and doubtless what's around it is subject to change. (Thus explaining the lack of detail and unpleasant genericness.)

Really, it's not a bad project at all. And if they can get it without public financing? Bravo! And while 34,000 seats is really pretty small . . . well, their average attendance last year was barely more than half that. 19427 in a year where they finished .599. They presently have the eighth largest park in MLB and the fourth lowest attendance at 1.57 million. (They were second lowest last year at under 1.48. Also well under .500 in 2017, so . . . that's a little less surprising.) I'm a bit surprised it's that bad, given that they're fairly perennial contenders, but it's been an awfully long time since they won. Unlike the cross bay crew, which is really a much more storied franchise anyway. (And wins a lot more. And has a much much larger payroll. Funny that.) They really do need to right-size their park. I'm pretty sure they're the last team still in a multi-purpose. (Can't really think who else still is.)

Good thing Bjarke isn't designing anything in St. Louis because his designs are FUGLY. The building designs presented in Oakland's Ballpark are other designs that he has mashed together for Oakland, and they don't look good from other designs that are similar to this that he has done.

But back to Ballpark Village, The Business Journal ran a story the other day that has pictures of the current construction progress. It's give you a better look than I can provide.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... s-260.html

You'd think they'd either get the apartments or ballpark right. But they're both just terrible.

Take Kauffman, surround the outfield with hobbit huts, then surround that with early 80's wannabe Blade Runner Yugoslav housing projects, voila! Jewel Box!

^ I don't know what they are going for other then a rendering that is different.

What is being built at BPV is good representation what is being built next to ATT, Bay area and or vice versa in my mind.

Curious, anyone heard how One Cardinal Way is doing on lease rates? Any indication of Two Cardinal way being floated soon now that the 300 Broadway stalled?

I wouldn't be surprised if Cordish/DeWitt and or Koman have been quietly negotiating 300 Broadway purchase with STLCC and or already have it under contract. Unless investors of original 300 Broadway put some money into an escrow account to have STLCC pull it off the market in short term.