Rumor: Drury Hotels Interested in KTVI Site at Hampton & 40.
Recently Drury announced intentions to build a hotel at Kingshighway & I-64 (aka Hwy 40). Residents pushed back at the idea of losing homes on the edge of their neighborhood.
At this point it is unclear if the Hampton location is sought as a replacement to the Kingshighway intersection or if the strategy is to keep both in play and see which sticks first. What is clear is that with the rebuild of I-64 we will see new interest in redeveloping the areas around the intersections both in the city & county.
From the Business Journal on Sept 18, 2008:
TV stations KPLR Channel 11, a CW affiliate, and KTVI Channel 2, a Fox affiliate, will combine news operations and share programming, owners Tribune Co. and Local TV Holdings said Tuesday.
The two stations will co-locate in the Maryland Heights offices of KPLR and use one newsroom, which will most likely lead to cost-cutting and lay-offs.
The question is if the city is going to do anything to retain these jobs in the city? News in the region happens all over but much takes place in the city & central county. As with print media, we are seeing cost cutting measures that may not please everyone. Faces seen on TV for years are getting the boot.
KTVI employees, I’m told, are not so keen on commuting to Maryland Heights. With people looking at their current real estate and an announced deal to combine news operations I’d say we’ll be seeing changes at 40 & Hampton in the next few years.
Makes sense to me – if you’re combining operations, sell off the property with the higher value . . .
Relocating to Maryland Heights would make absolutely no sense. “Film at 10, or rather, we would have had film, had we not been stuck on 270 in traffic while the event unfolded.”
Ok, wait, so Drury wants to put a hotel EXACTLY 1 MILE away from their newest location, at Hampton and 44???? Next to another brand-new Hampton Inn?
Doesn’t make much sense….
The KTVI property surely has big value, but the individual residential properties in that neighborhood are surely not. – Drury should by the whole area and level it for quality development.
Of course the KTVI property has good value. I would imagine the developers of the adjacent Highlands would be quite interested in working with the City to expand.
As for KTVI, Maryland Heights is clearly not the best location for their combined operations. If they wanted to commit to the City, then maybe the CWE would be a good location. At the very least they could do a far better “Window on St. Louis” type new program than KSDK given that there is street life in the CWE and next to none on Market Street.
To be more innovative, I could see a downtown Clayton locaiton being attractive for KTVI as well. Good street life if they choose the right location (would be a decent anchor for the Centene project), a central location within the metro area, with the news room located near the offices of the largest county in the region. Not a bad deal at all.
That said, I would much rather see them stay in the City.
I heard a recent rumor but it may still be just that. Centene is hurting because of state cuts and may not meet projections. Due to that and the sliding market the finance package is falling apart and Clayton and St. Louis County are on the hook for the money. This whole deal may fall apart and Clayton will be left with the bill.
As to channel 2, they will become a nothing channel just like 11 became when they moved to no mans land. Bad decision on their part.
Maybe we should worry more about attracting/retaining jobs in the Metro area as a whole and not quibbling over what zip code a few jobs sit it. As long as Maryland Height is not offering subsidies to get Channel 2 out to the NEW KPLR facility, I don’t see a problem.
I agree with the comment above from Becker. We need to stop focussing on sniping jobs from the next municipality over, and think about ways to attract new jobs to the metropolitan area. A simple way to strengthen the local industry is, when given the opportunity to choose vendors locally or from out of town, choose local!
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I love the idea of a ‘Window on the West End’
Areas outside 270 have little connection to our core. I think it’s regionally inappropriate to have major media outlets physically disconnected from our Core. They already miss a lot of news. What’s going to happen now? More coverage of St. Charles problems? Maybe now we’ll get to hear about their crime problems?
Where the studio is located has little to do with what’s covered. It has a whole lot more to do with what their competitors are covering, or not. If you cover sports, you go to where the games are played. If there’s a major wreck, you go to the scene. Would I like them in the city? Sure. But as long as they maintain a viable news operation (unlike the local ABC affilliate), I really don’t care where the studio ends up (although I’m sure their staff ahs a few opinions).
“Areas outside 270 have little connection to our core. I think it’s regionally inappropriate to have major media outlets physically disconnected from our Core.”
This is the kind of thinking that I have a problem with. Like it or not, St. Chuck is part of our metropolitan area. So are Imperial, Alton, Sauget, and Florissant. We are all part of this region and it will take regional thinking and cooperation to solve some our biggest problems. People who live outside of 270 still pay county taxes, shop in county and city stores, and work at employers in the city and throughout the area. Taking a closed minded elitist view from inside the city lines will not help anything.
And using the term ‘elitist’ in reference to someone not exurban helps the situation… how?
Where is the rumor coming from? I smell a plant here and I’m not talking about the trees they are going to raze. Someone and I’ve got to say the Drury’s have had ABNA engineering out in FPSE for the past month. That’s a lot of cash to drop on a survey if you’re looking at the spot up the street. A mile from their new site and one stop before BJC and there whole business plan starts to look pretty shabby. Steve are you trying to use your powers of suggestion?