Four Projects That are Reshaping the CBD
Date Posted: November 1, 2019
Posted In: Projects, Regionalism,
From St. Louis Business Journal: At first glance, 3029 Locust St., with its old carpet and drop ceiling, did not seem like the ideal home for Once Films, a film and video production company known for its Emmy Award-winning civic-oriented documentary projects highlighting St. Louis.
But clearing out some of the grime revealed the 106-year-old building’s original tin ceilings, hand-laid porcelain floor tile and real potential.
“I couldn’t always explain how I felt, but I could show it,” Chris Ryan, the company’s principal and creative director, said of his passion for film. “To me, development is no different.
“Maybe I can’t change my government or city, but I can make an impact on my city block.”
Ryan relocated Once Films to its new home in Midtown Alley to be closer to a rapidly transforming urban core and within walking distance of one its newest amenities, the revamped Union Station entertainment district on the western edge of downtown.
While several key downtown projects remain in some form of stasis, including the redevelopments of the vacant Jefferson Arms and Railway Exchange buildings, progress is fervent along downtown’s outer edges.
The Union Station project, which includes the soon-to-open St. Louis Aquarium and the future home of a Major League Soccer stadium, joins the $260 million second phase of Ballpark Village, the redevelopment of the Post-Dispatch building, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new western headquarters as key developments along the fringes of downtown with the potential to become catalysts for reviving the struggling city center.
“The culmination from the Central West End to west of downtown will feed itself into downtown proper,” said Rob Goltermann, president of commercial real estate firm DCM Group. “What I have seen is successful development then feeds other development by a power of 10.”
But some question whether the city can effectively carry that momentum from downtown’s outer edges further into the city center itself, where the 19.8% office vacancy rate is the highest in the region.
“What St. Louis has not done well for a decade — that’s plan,” said Sara Coffin, associate professor for the College for Public Health and Social Justice and program director for urban planning and development at Saint Louis University. “The first phase of Ballpark Village was going to be a catalyst project, the redevelopment of the Arch is, too. But a catalyst project for what?
“That’s a question the region has struggled to answer.”
And it’s a question the city doesn’t know how to answer, at least not yet.
St. Louis Development Corp. Executive Director Otis Williams said the answers will come early next year, when the city unveils its first-ever equitable economic development strategy.
“We have a good base and we’ve done our homework,” Williams said. “We have a lot of momentum.”