Dated “master plan” of NOW Innovation district included with SLDC RFP for convention center lot.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... eid=820361








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I wish there was more involvement from regional higher ed institutions. Some are listed as "stakeholders" but that doesn't really mean anything. 

Without local institutions pumping out talent, who are they going to hire? It seems like a great opportunity for St. Mary's, MoBap, Lindenwood, StLCC. etc. I would love to see UMS&T with a footprint in the city, whether its Cortex or NOW.

A MoLeg willing to raise taxes to support higher ed would be required for that to happen.

quincunx wrote: ↑

May 13, 2020

A MoLeg willing to raise taxes to support higher ed would be required for that to happen.

Regarding UMS&T specifically?

Yes or any other public univ. 
So stupid that while they were moving down neighborhoods for urban renewal that they built UMSL where they did.

As a golf lover I wish we still had the original Bellerive. RTJ courses haven’t aged well in the world of course architecture

I do not believe an Innovation district needs a university to succeed although I agree it would help.  39 North has Danforth Plant Science Center and Bayer.  I think NOW Technology Innovation District will succeed due to its proximity to Square and NGA.  Other strong success factors will be from the density of the area and proximity to TREX.

The warehouses north of downtown just scream potential to me. If a university wanted a satellite campus down here, the land acquisition would be relatively simple and inexpensive. Always thought a university campus would be a great missing middle between DTSTL and NSTL.

Techstl wrote: ↑

May 13, 2020

I do not believe an Innovation district needs a university to succeed although I agree it would help.  39 North has Danforth Plant Science Center and Bayer.  I think NOW Technology Innovation District will succeed due to its proximity to Square and NGA.  Other strong success factors will be from the density of the area and proximity to TREX.

Agree,

I believe the biggest issue going forward is how much space tech companies will actually desire?   Twitter gave its employees green light to permanently work from home if read the news reports correctly.  Will Dorsey do the same for Square?  My wife at ATT has been telecommuting for a while and the last push from her director to be back into the office a year or so ago pretty much all but died on the grapevie with Covid.  I think their will be a fundamental downsize in commercial space and will be a year or two before it grows again.   

I would agree. I think COVID 19 further underlines the question of office space; I might be in the minority, but I feel that people would much rather work in an office with other people then work from home. Anyway I think the NOW district has a really good chance of succeeding (disregarding the current economic situation). 

dredger wrote: ↑

May 14, 2020

Techstl wrote: ↑

May 13, 2020

I do not believe an Innovation district needs a university to succeed although I agree it would help.  39 North has Danforth Plant Science Center and Bayer.  I think NOW Technology Innovation District will succeed due to its proximity to Square and NGA.  Other strong success factors will be from the density of the area and proximity to TREX.

Agree,

I believe the biggest issue going forward is how much space tech companies will actually desire?   Twitter gave its employees green light to permanently work from home if read the news reports correctly.  Will Dorsey do the same for Square?  My wife at ATT has been telecommuting for a while and the last push from her director to be back into the office a year or so ago pretty much all but died on the grapevie with Covid.  I think their will be a fundamental downsize in commercial space and will be a year or two before it grows again.   

 And Twitter was notoriously anti-remote for a long time....

I would love to see this innovation district include the riverfront north of the Arch -- something similar to Seaport Innovation District in Boston which sprang out of derelict property near downtown on Boston Bay near their new convention center.  What would we call it -- River Landing Innovation District?

2020STL wrote: ↑

May 14, 2020

I would agree. I think COVID 19 further underlines the question of office space; I might be in the minority, but I feel that people would much rather work in an office with other people then work from home. Anyway I think the NOW district has a really good chance of succeeding (disregarding the current economic situation). 

I'm in the camp of wanting to go to the office even though my wife prefers the telecommute in her job.   My number of zoom meetings grew for a while along with fair share of internal miscommunication & lot more emails to communicate since most of our admin staff is at home.   Already have projects on all three coasts with respective owners and now feels like my office is just another project or two somewhere else.  Being in the same office within ear shot of our admin, accounts payable and receivables, estimating people and so forth made a lot a little stuff simple like it should be.

dredger wrote: ↑

Sep 15, 2020

Any tidbits of note in Biz Journal article talking up teaming up to improve infrastructure/Tucker Ave?

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

The infrastructure upgrades are the replacement of 24 street light fixtures at a cost of about $2000 each. Nothing else was mentioned beyond that 200 additional lights have been identified for replacement. This will help distinguish the boundary between NOW and Downtown.

So is this still the NOW innovation district or is it being rebranded as the Gigabyte Corridor now? Or is the Gigabyte Corridor one small section of the Now innovation district?


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SeattleNative wrote: ↑

Oct 21, 2020

SeattleNative wrote:So is this still the NOW innovation district or is it being rebranded as the Gigabyte Corridor now? Or is the Gigabyte Corridor one small section of the Now innovation district?


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FWIW, in terms of marketing and branding, the “Gigabyte Corridor” does a lot more for proclaiming St. Louis as an up and coming tech market... even if it is a bit cheesy.


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"Terabyte Corridor" would do more to proclaim that St. Louis is an up and coming tech market.

^By the time it actually is a district "terabyte" might be as insignificant sounding as "megabyte" is today.  I say go big: "Yottabyte Corridor".  Plus, it sounds close enough to the name "Yoda", and we all know anything involving Yoda is immediately embraced by nerds so win/win.

I suppose Yoda-byte would have a better ring than petabyte. But in honesty, I think gigabyte corridor will do fine.

Bingo! Marketing genius!

^Yours for free. I figured it was obvious. That said . . . if you run a marketing company and want to hire a half competent composer, amateur graphic designer, and obtuse and overly wordy writer . . . I am available.

So is this NOW district dead or what’s the status?


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JJ, this will be a long term endeavor IMO.   

The same as for CORTEX as it was conceived years ago and took years for any real movement.   I think the biggest thing right now is Square gets itself established, NGA comes to completion and occupied, and the inroads on Geospatial will start to bear fruit & lead to NOW being a success.