urbanSTL

Alley homes
 

I took a walk around the development today. I was glad to see that the sidewalk is now fully open on Cardinal Way from Broadway to 8th.  Now that Phase 2 is 98% complete (still putting finishing touches on One Cardinal Way's entrance and Clark Street retail space), I can grade it accordingly. I'll grade each portion of Phase 2 separately.

CARDINAL WAY
Cardinal Way itself is quiet for now. However, I give plenty of good points to this portion of the development due to the following factors...

1. Plenty of retail spaces and lobbies facing out onto that street. There are 10 retail spaces and 3 lobbies (technically 4 if you consider the vestibule into LIVE! as a lobby) facing out onto Cardinal Way. 
2. The brick sidewalks make for a nice touch than simple concrete.
3. The street trees will be a nice touch once they grow up and provide a decent amount of shade. They also add color to the short street. However, some of these trees appeared dead already. Hopefully next spring, they'll be in bloom with the others.
4. The sidewalks are plenty wide in front of Phase 1 and OneLife. This allows for outdoor seating.
5. Inclusion of small bike rack things.

There are some downsides to Cardinal Way that I identified...

1. Random crosswalk locations that don't make much sense for now.
2. The entrance to the PwC Pennant Building garage is along Cardinal Way and is really disappointing. 
3. Sidewalks in front of PwC Pennant Building aren't wide enough for outdoor seating, which could be a problem for Starbucks.

Once three other buildings are built, I'd expect this to be the "Main Street" of the development with most of the stores and restaurants looking out onto it. I would like to see wider sidewalks on the other side of the street for more outdoor seating, but I guess that's to be determined based on building design of those blocks.

Overall, I give "Cardinal Way" a Grade A-.



PWC PENNANT BUILDING
The office building is a great addition to the neighborhood. It was a gamble on Downtown and unfortunately the only office building I see being built at Ballpark Village. While all the retail spaces in the building are leased, office remains just over 66% leased with just 3 tenants calling the building home...

1. PwC
2. ButcherJoseph
3. Fox Sports

The glassy, 4-story office portion of the building looks good, the parking garage portion will not age very well. The precast garage pieces will look dirty after a while if proper maintenance is not done. At least the first floor of the building is halfway decent but its 8th street side is compromised by the large receiving dock and Cardinal Way has the issue of the garage entrance.

Overall, I give the PwC Pennant Building a Grade C+


LIVE BY LOEWS
This aspect of the project is pretty solid. The precast facade is really the only let down here. The hotel gets a boost from the patio space along Clark for the lobby restaurant, three retail spaces (2 of which are leased), and a second floor bar space overlooking the Together Credit Union Plaza.

I give Live by Loews a Grade A+.

TOGETHER CREDIT UNION PLAZA
Honestly, the name isn't needed. Field of Dreams Plaza or Busch 2 Infield sound much better. However, the space is quite nice with 4 buildings overlooking it. The "Walk of Fame" is a nice touch as well. The stage is the part that I feel was an afterthought. It just looks temporary to me, but at least it's functional. 

Plaza Grade: A




ONELIFE BUILDING
3-stories and 2 tenants are the main highlights about this building. It's also all glass, so that's neat (to me at least). However, I do have a problem with the garage door on Cardinal Way. I know it's for a loading dock, but I think it would've been better suited for a mini-bar or something that's mostly outdoors.

I give OneLife's building a Grade A.

ONE CARDINAL WAY
The most visible building in Phase 2 is also one that I have a lot of good things to say about and a lot of bad. I'll start with the good.

1. 29-stories. Adds a new building to the skyline.
2. 297 apartment units (74% of which are leased), which gets people living at Ballpark Village and creates a product for other developments on the near vicinity to go off of depending on long term success.
3. 3 retail spaces with one being occupied by Salt + Smoke. Brings a decent BBQ joint to the neighborhood.
4. Strong street presences along Cardinal Way and Clark.

And now for the bad...

1. Broadway is a lost cause. No retail space entrances and only a few windows. Long brick walls also make it a lost cause.
2. Parking garage entrance and loading dock right in the middle of the frontage on Broadway.
3. "Crown" screen. It's really tacky for what should be a sophisticated building.
4. Parking garage is too "dark". The lighter gray used on the high-rise portion of the tower should've been put on the garage as well.

Despite my critiques, it's a good building and sets the design precedent for future residential high-rises at Ballpark Village, those being 2 and 3 Cardinal Way. However, I would advise Cordish not do a "Light Towers" move and clad each building in the same shade of glass. You don't want to create a monotonous wall of same colored glass. Change it up a little with each additional building and maybe change the designs a little bit. Also, they really shouldn't do another "Sky Screen". 

Overall, I give One Cardinal Way a Grade B+ with the hope that future residential towers address the 4 "cons" I came up with. I really think Cordish is learning a lot with their 3 completed residential towers (1 and 2 Light in KC and OCW here). Each residential tower they do will get progressively better in different aspects.












To wrap up this post, here are some photos of retail spaces where just announced businesses will go. First two are where "Village Whiskey" will go. Second is where Starbucks will go. 




And a few other pictures. First is of "6 Cardinal Way". Second is of a new screen installed on Phase 1. You can see some covered windows in the first photo under the canopy for the office building. Those windows will look into "Village Whiskey".



FINAL COMMENT: For a Sunday, I was happy to see a few people out down at Ballpark Village. If coronavirus wasn't going on, I could see this place being busier on Sundays than what it was today. I do think that once things go back to normal this will be a busy place to be on both Cardinals Game days and non-game days. Not as busy as Power and Light District, but it will be busier than what it was when Phase 1 was the only thing here.

pattimagee wrote: ↑

Aug 21, 2020

Alley homes
 

Loving it.