The Future of Downtown St. Louis Depends Upon [insert latest project here]
Tavia Evans reports in yesterday’s Post-Dispatch that RGGA’s Dick Fleming is tossing out yet another scare tactic about the future of downtown:
Civic booster Richard Fleming on Thursday called St. Louis Centre “the Pruitt-Igoe of retail,” and said the future of downtown retail could hinge on redevelopment of the mall.
Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association, made the comments during an Urban Land Institute conference at the Chase Park Plaza. His remarks were in reference to the failed Pruitt-Igoe housing complex on the city’s North Side. The complex was razed in the early 1970s.
National planning experts said the future of downtown St. Louis is closely tied to the fate of the troubled mall.
That is funny. Last year all the downtown “advocates” said the future of downtown depended upon tearing down the historic Century Building for a parking garage serving the Old Post Office Square. Before that downtown depended upon a new Cardinals baseball stadium. A convention hotel was going to save downtown too. Don’t forget an arena for the Blues. And the football dome, that was the key to saving downtown.
I’m sick of it. These guys are worse than the local TV news. They couch all these projects as a must have so that nobody will speak out against whatever project they want to publicly fund.
The writing is on the wall. Federated is buying out May Company with the building next door to St. Louis Centre. The mall’s new owner, Barry Cohen, is saying it can be made to work as a mall, perhaps without the skybridges. Can another round of good money after bad be far behind?
Back to the Post-Dispatch:
Cohen bought the mostly-empty mall in August at a foreclosure sale, reportedly for $5.4 million; St. Louis Centre was built in the 1980s for about $95 million.
Massive public supported real estate projects sure don’t hold their value very well do they? Would you buy a house if the value 25 years later would be less than 10% of the purchase price? No wonder people such as Fleming must work overtime to sell the public a bill of goods.
If we are to believe them downtown will be in ruins if we don’t support the project of the year. I hope us in the general public are not stupid enough to believe this load of BS. I know I can see through it – although it keeps getting thicker and thicker.
Downtown is well on its way because of the work of residential developers and businesses like City Grocers. This is what makes downtown great. They add true value, not just take our tax dollars for a ride.
– Steve
St. Louis Centre does suck. Yet, maybe there’s a middle ground for us not that far away?
More and more people are advocating for the idea of demolishing the section of the StL Centre crossing Washington Avenue, making possible the restoration of the facade of the old Dillards on Washington Avenue and opening up the entire canyon vista of Wash Ave from the Eads Bridge out beyond 20th Street.
Then, perhaps a redesigned version of St. Louis Centre could be created, across the street from a then-restored Dillards, the USBank Tower, and the Convention Center, built to be urban scaled and pedestrian friendly? And what if through the reconfiguring of the Centre, we created an indoor direct access to Metrolink, one that would increase foot traffic through the Centre?.
Perhaps the newly redesigned space could serve as the location for a comedy club, restaurants and shops, different this time in that it would engage its surrounding rather than isolate itself from it.
RB
[REPLY: St. Louis Centre does suck. Like so many big projects it was a bad idea from day one. When will we ever learn. The bridges over the road need to be done ASAP. Must us tax payers foot the bill? Removing the bridges will add value to all adjacent private property. – Steve]
This blog entry really should be a letter to the editor.
I read this article today and was hoping that I would see some commentary on it here.
I don’t live in STL right now so I don’t know what is located near or in downtown. I know there’s a Target being built on Kingshighway, but what about a Big Box store in STL Centre? I don’t know if there’s enough residents to support a full on Target in this space, but what about a reduced size Target or Target-like store? One where you could get household goods and such. Maybe even a bigger grocery store or World Market.
I haven’t been to St. Louis Centre since about 1987 so I can’t remember how big the space is. I’m sure there’s enough for an anchor like a grocer or Target.
[REPLY: St. Louis Centre does suck. Like so many big projects it was a bad idea from day one. When will we ever learn. The bridges over the road need to be done ASAP. Must us tax payers foot the bill? Removing the bridges will add value to all adjacent private property. – Steve]
Given how cheap Cohen bought the Centre, you think he’d be able to support the cost of renovating it; however, would people oppose using TIF for the right project?
RB
The Pruitt-Igoe of retail? WHAT A SENSITIVE COMPARISON! (muffled grumbling sounds)