I agree with the overall point you are making and I like the vision. It’s just not within the realm of possibility for Purina certainly, and I wouldn’t think for Ameren either.Auggie wrote: ↑Oct 03, 2025I think the city needs a broad, long term redevelopment plan for the parts of Downtown, Downtown West, and LaSalle Park around Chouteau and 8th Street, south of the train tracks.
I don't know how we can seriously imagine a "thriving" downtown in our future when we have complexes like the Purina HQ having a total accessed value of ~$34.5M or about $1.07M/acre. For reference, my parent's single family home in South City is $2.4M/acre. Metropolitan Square is ~$36M/acre. This is the story across this entire area, very very horribly utilized land generating very little tax revenue.
If there is something I would like to see Spencer do, it would be to put together a top down redevelopment plan that includes business relocations, new built infrastructure, and new construction using some Rams money, ideally Spencer being "business friendly" should help getting the private sector on board. Obviously this is all mostly wish casting from me, but I still don't see a future where STL is thriving and we have this black hole between downtown and Lafayette Square/LaSalle Park, etc.
My thrown together idea would be to:
1) Incentivize Ameren and Purina to move across to real downtown, probably leasing space or buying buildings. This would retain the companies and employees, improve downtown's office numbers, improve downtown's economy, and give a much needed shot to downtown. It would also make their sprawling office complexes vacant and ready to redevelop.
2) Relocate other businesses that will not work with the broder redevelopment plan, which would focus on residential, retail, and small office, while keeping those that fit with the plan.
3) Demolish buildings not suitable for the broader plan while maintaining buildings that can be redeveloped in line with the plan.
4) Rebuild the street-grid and rebuild utility infrastructure to make the area ready and primed for redevelopment.
5) Improve pedestrian and bicycle connections to downtown via 8th Street, Tucker Bridge, 14th street bridge, and 18th Street bridge with new lighting, protected cycle tracks, and protected sidewalks.
6) What would the plan even look like? I imagine keeping the historic buildings that remain, probably keeping most of Ameren and Purina's buildings with the goal of mixed use redevelopment. Apartmemt complexes and town homes I think would look great here, some parks as well. The area would be split into many different plots and in theory, multiple developers could come in and build in different areas.
Again, I'm aware I am wishcasting, I'm aware that Ameren and Purina are not seeking new HQs, I'm aware none of our leaders have any vision, all I'm saying is that this area is a massive burden on the city and downtown and there *should* be a broad top down redevelopment plan for a long term vision.
The area I'm talking about is ~188 acres, much of which are surface parking lots. Nearby ongoing/proposed developments include the new apartments at LaSalle and Missouri, Gateway South, and the Clinton-Peabody redevelopment.
Remember that Purina has a fair amount of plant/manufacturing on their campus too.
The one benefit to Purina and Ameren’s set up is owning that land and those buildings helps shore up their commitment to staying downtown. I wouldn’t want them to move to leasing.
