The Kirkwood Gadfly is reporting that the OPUS Group is proposing a 125 unit apartment building for people over 55 years of age on the Commerce Bank parcel on Kirkwood Road in Downtown Kirkwood (300-50 N. Kirkwood Road). The project will also include a new bank branch at the corner of Kirkwood Road and Washington along with 8800SF of retail space along the main Kirkwood Road frontage. There will be 163 parking spots. 126 would be underground with 37 being surface parking and situated behind the new bank building. The bank will feature no drive-thru, or at least it seems that way.

A small garden will be situated between the bank building and apartments.

As many have figured out, this is a different project than Altus's/HOK's Kirkwood Flats, which is proposed for the block north of here. Between this and that (thread can be found here: viewtopic.php?p=312384#p312384), this will become a fairly dense part of Kirkwood. It's my favorite suburb, so I'm happy to start seeing it fill in. Now, NIMBYs will surely show up to fight this but because of the coronavirus, maybe they won't be able to show up. The design needs some tweaking but overall, great size.

STORY: https://kirkwoodgadfly.com/125-apartmen ... bank-site/

View East

View North

Aerial to the Northeast

Aerial North

Bank Portion Renderings

Gonna be interesting to see how the folks in Kirkwood respond to all these new large-scale apartment proposals. 

There's a glut of surface lots all over Kirkwood.  I think it's OK for them to shed the small town Downtown feel at this point.  It's 2020.  But then again, I don't live there.

As somebody who grew up in Kirkwood, I can assure you there is a very vocal population of NIMBYs who will fight tooth and nail to preserve their precious free parking. Unfortunately, while Kirkwood is a relatively human scaled city, there is next to no bike infrastructure. For this reason, bikers are generally detested by the local driving population. For Kirkwood to make meaningful changes, these attitudes need to shift.

What I would like to see done:

• Grant's Trail must be extended into downtown. The ROW already exists and would drop off bikers in the heart of downtown Kirkwood. This is the lowest hanging fruit on the list and would instantly turn DTK into a top cycling destination. The constant presence of bikers downtown spending money at local businesses will do a lot by itself to change local attitudes. Would also likely spur a couple trail related businesses similar to the Bike Stop Cafe in St. Charles.
• Dedicated bicycle ROW on major roads. People hate the bikers because they hate driving behind them. As somebody who used to bike to school and around town as a youth, using the street instead was a non starter. I remember being surprised when I learned that biking on the sidewalk was actually illegal, because biking in the street with traffic just seemed so dangerous. 
• I am seeing more golf carts downtown lately, kind of like Soulard. IMO this should be supported. Would love to see some car parking converted to dedicated golf cart parking. Not only to golf carts slow down traffic, but they are far more efficient to park. Bike infrastructure can also be built and sold as golf cart infrastructure if executed properly.

Not much they can do about the density/parking arguments, but there's a lot of room for improvement on design and materials. 

OPUS should stick to its playbook for Citizen Park, which improved over the course of its NIMBY appeasement process resulting in much bigger windows and brick or faux stone on 80+% of the facade on all sides. 

As proposed this project appears to have over 50% siding on all facades other than N. Kirkwood Rd. 

The DPZ report recognized that to keep downtown relatively charming, Kirkwood needs more people living within easy walking distance of downtown.  That is what this project and Kirkwood Flats would help do.  Kirkwood likes the  small locally owned stores downtown and wants to keep them in this age of Amazon.  Zoning allows tall residential South of Monroe and North of Bodley to encourage high rise residential just beyond downtown along Kirkwood Road.  But these two developments are in the shorter zoned range area.  

I would hate for the developers to do what happened in St. Peters several years ago when a developer wanted the city council to re-zone a corner from residential to commercial for a medium grocery store.  When the public complained, the developer announced they were considering dropping the store plans, and building low-income housing allowed by existing zoning instead.  The grocery store was approved.

The newest NIMBY excuse will be, "isn't that many people so close together bad in a pandemic?!"

Construction underway on the new Commerce Bank branch at the corner of Kirkwood Road and Washington. The current bank building was listed for sale a while back, so something could be in the works for that part of the parcel.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Mar 20, 2020

As somebody who grew up in Kirkwood, I can assure you there is a very vocal population of NIMBYs who will fight tooth and nail to preserve their precious free parking. Unfortunately, while Kirkwood is a relatively human scaled city, there is next to no bike infrastructure. For this reason, bikers are generally detested by the local driving population. For Kirkwood to make meaningful changes, these attitudes need to shift.

What I would like to see done:

• Grant's Trail must be extended into downtown. The ROW already exists and would drop off bikers in the heart of downtown Kirkwood. This is the lowest hanging fruit on the list and would instantly turn DTK into a top cycling destination. The constant presence of bikers downtown spending money at local businesses will do a lot by itself to change local attitudes. Would also likely spur a couple trail related businesses similar to the Bike Stop Cafe in St. Charles.
• Dedicated bicycle ROW on major roads. People hate the bikers because they hate driving behind them. As somebody who used to bike to school and around town as a youth, using the street instead was a non starter. I remember being surprised when I learned that biking on the sidewalk was actually illegal, because biking in the street with traffic just seemed so dangerous. 
• I am seeing more golf carts downtown lately, kind of like Soulard. IMO this should be supported. Would love to see some car parking converted to dedicated golf cart parking. Not only to golf carts slow down traffic, but they are far more efficient to park. Bike infrastructure can also be built and sold as golf cart infrastructure if executed properly.

I understand that Kirkwood might not want to take the Clayton high rise approach to development, but I do think they would benefit greatly from the Alexandria, VA approach to development. Preserving history, but adding soft density like more townhomes and 4-6 apartment buildings in their downtown. 

Kirkwood council rejects proposals for development of parking lots. From Kirkwood Gadfly. https://kirkwoodgadfly.com/ipg-boutique ... d-by-city/


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That's a shame, Kirkwood needs a downtown hotel. Especially with the Amtrak station. Missing out on six retail bays is also a huge bummer.

It's worse. KW City Council intends to reject any "larger" developments for downtown.

This board is new as of April. Most of them ran on no new developments downtown due to lack of parking. Their voters didn’t wait to see the proposals, which now we know add parking, not subtract, with 2 level parking structures behind storefronts or underground. The public is just now learning what the Council rejected before the public could see them.


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I really thought Kirkwood was headed in the right direction, especially after that horrendous Webster Groves decision a year or two back.

I guess not.  

RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑

Jul 03, 2024

I really thought Kirkwood was headed in the right direction, especially after that horrendous Webster Groves decision a year or two back.

I guess not.  

I moved to Kirkwood last year and I thought so too.  Apparently it was just our last mayor (who got term limited) who had his head on straight. 

I am going to send a note to the council & mayor expressing my frustration. The government shouldnt be picking winners & losers.

This council just told 12 local businesses they cant come here - imagine how many great small local businesses could be in DT Kirkwood.  This council said those small business people are not welcome in Kirkwood. For our businesses that are already here they just raised your rent by denying more commercial lease supply - making your business harder.  

My parents who come in town to see their grandkids are being told instead of staying in a hotel in DT Kirkwood to stay in Clayton, CWE or Brentwood. Instead of me, my wife and our kids walking over to their hotel in DT kirkwood and going shopping and going to lunch/dinner in Kirkwood we will now drive over to meet them where they are, so Kirkwood businesses wont get our dollars and KW wont get our taxes - Webster Groves, Clayton and the CWE will.   

What makes Kirkwood great is not parking lots - its a small downtown where you can walk & bike to everything and have a ton of great local businesses to patronize.  This council is not saving Kirkwood. It is saying local businesses are no longer welcome here.  It's saying we want strip malls with large parking, not quaint local businesses. 

This council is government saying it knows what's best and picking winners and losers.  They don't care about the freedom of people to patronize and support the businesses they want to or the freedom of business owners to open or develop a store where they want - nope the local Kirkwood council knows more than anyone else and you will obey them. 

They denied a bunch of new tax dollars coming in so I hope they have a plan to increase tax revenue because I'm not voting to raise my own taxes after they bungled this opportunity. 

A small hotel in downtown Kirkwood with a car rental desk or phone so one could summon a rental car would be nice. Last summer we stayed at an Element hotel in downtown Bozeman one block off the main drag. Budget picked us up at the hotel. We picked that location so we could easily walk to bars and restaurants nearby.


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TriStar is now pitching 300 N Kirkwood (old Commerce Bank, subject of this thread) and it sounds like it's moving forward. 60 apartments, 4 stories, 4800 sq ft commercial space and a gym.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/art ... 0a327.html

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Kirkwood could be so much better if it wasn't so NIMBY and if there was a commuter train.

I don't understand all the Nimbys in Kirkwood, downtown has never been more active. I still think to what it was like before Traget moved south and the Station development replaced it. Although the Target parking lot was a handy place to park for the train.

southcitykid wrote: ↑

Oct 25, 2025

I don't understand all the Nimbys in Kirkwood, downtown has never been more active. I still think to what it was like before Traget moved south and the Station development replaced it. Although the Target parking lot was a handy place to park for the train.

I believe there was some disappointment in the James apartments next door.  The apartments inside are really nice.  But the outside of the building is a big box, like a lot of new apartment buildings nowadays.  And the flat white wall on the South end makes it look unfinished.  When I first saw that wall, I thought it was the  vapor barrier or something they put up ahead of brick.  They should at least paint it to, I'd say, dark grey-green or gray-anything.   Folks are comparing it to the Station Plaza Apartments across from Kirkwood City Hall with the large plaza, restaurants below, and a dramatic classical roof.  James is not nearly as dramatic or -- let's just say -- worthy of preserving someday.

I believe the new apartment building designs for the old Commerce Bank site at Adams and Kirkwood Road include slightly more interesting roof and top floor changes including dormers of some kind, making it less likely to be mistaken for an unfinished warehouse than the James is.

Final approval given to TriStar's plan. 60 units, four stories, 4,800 sq ft retail.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/met ... 603f9.html

Not bad looking. Hopefully they won't cheap-out on the fit, finish, and details. 

Gotta say the quality of the infill going into DTK the past ten years has been top notch