Making Downtown a Home
Date Posted: October 12, 2021
Posted In: News, Projects,
From St. Louis Business Journal: When Dave Finklang moved in 2018 from his Richmond Heights house to an apartment in downtown St. Louis, he called it a “six-month experiment” in what it’s like to live and work downtown.
Six months was the length of his original lease at the former Laclede Gas Building at 720 Olive St. Finklang renewed it for two six-month extensions. Then last year, he and his fiancé moved into One Cardinal Way, the new residential building at Ballpark Village that overlooks Busch Stadium.
“Downtown has so much to offer that my six-month experiment is now nearly three years in the making and going strong,” said Finklang, a partner in Anders CPA + Advisors whose office is a short walk from his home.
In addressing downtown’s core challenges, one of the biggest revolves around building critical mass, or put more simply, drawing more people into the neighborhood. While attracting more businesses downtown is a key part of the equation, Finklang is among several business owners and residents who say that more housing should play a major role in any revitalization strategy. They advocate that more residents will create demand for shopping, restaurants and other commerce that thrives on foot traffic.
Downtown needs to become more of a neighborhood or a collection of communities, advocates for housing say.
“There’s been a real change in the thinking about ‘what do we want downtown?'” said Amy Gill, CEO of Restoration St. Louis, which owns the Hotel St. Louis. “The general consensus is that we don’t want it to become an entertainment district; that we’re looking for it to become more residential.”
The number of downtown residents is small, but it’s growing.
From 2010 to 2020, the number of people living downtown increased from 3,721 to 5,442 – a 46.2% increase. There was a 30% increase in Downtown West – from 3,940 to 5,115, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Combined, that’s a 38% population increase to 10,557.