By now work was to be underway remaking Kiener Plaza, but you may have noticed nothing is happening there. Work on designs and trying to secure funding has been ongoing though.
So far, around $57 million (the bulk of it is federal and state money) has been set aside to construct the lid in time for the Arch’s 50th anniversary in 2015. (KMOV)
We should see this “lid” work begin next year.
ABOVE: This should be the view three years from today with a park over I-70 and the entrance to an expanded underground museum now facing the city. Image: City+Arch+River, click to view website
Three years from today a big party will be held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Arch, but the question in many minds is how much of the ambitious plans will be completed?
The poll question this week is are you optimistic or pessimistic about the project? This might mean are you optimistic it’ll get funded, that most will get built? The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile readers need to switch to the full layout to see the sidebar.
Last month I posted about a vacant retail space in a state-owned parking garage (see: Storefront Still Vacant A Decade Later, Tax Dollars Wasted?). Some said perhaps the Renaissance Grand Hotel used the space for storage, but that didn’t seen likely to me. Well, turns out the retail storefront has been used by the hotel for storage rent-free for a decade!
ABOVE: This storefront facing 9th Street has been vacant for years, no leasing information has been posted in the window.
The Missouri Development Finance Board (MDFB) built and owns the garage, the attached ballroom building has separate ownership. The vacant storefront is just to the south of the auto exits from the garage.
ABOVE: Many hotel guests walk from the garage to hotel daily
For a decade now the state has received $0.00 in rent for this space while visitors to St. Louis see a poorly papered over storefront. The MDFB mission is:
To assist infrastructure and economic development projects in Missouri by providing the critical component of the total financing for projects that have a high probability of success, but are not feasible without the Board’s assistance.
How does leaving this storefront vacant for a decade support their mission? I talked with a hotel employee in the finance department who said if someone wanted to lease the storefront they’d remove their stuff. Retail spaces don’t lease themselves, it takes work to get tenants.
Even if the space was leased to a business for next to nothing it would be better for the city’s image of the city if it was occupied by an active business. — Steve Patterson
When most people see the AT&T office towers at 1010 Pine and 909 Chestnut St. they assume many people work there. The Pine tower is from 1925 and the Chestnut tower was built as the corporate headquarters of Southwestern Bell in 1985, both have just a fraction of the number of employees of even just 5 years ago.
ABOVE: AT&T’s two office buildings downtown, 1001 Chestnut (left) and 909 Chestnut (right). Photo by William Zbaren from American City: St. Louis Architecture (click image for more info)
Two issues: how AT&T reduced the workforce without public layoff notices and the implication for other downtown St. Louis businesses nearby.
Former and current employees tell the same story about how AT&T avoided having to issue layoff notices as required by the 1988 WARN Act. From one source:
AT&T has done a number of outsourcings since 2006-ish to different companies include Accenture, IBM and Amdocs. I was part of a 1,000 person division in IT which was outsourced to Amdocs in 2008.
We were given a very last minute notice about a mandatory meeting in February, 2008 in the Data Center auditorium where we were told we were being outsourced to Amdocs. Our pay & benefits (health insurance, vacation, etc.) were kept the same, with the exception of our pension as Amdocs did not have a pension plan. Instead, we were given an additional 5% match to our 401k. We still worked for the same boss (the outsourcing went up to the VP level, in my instance), at the same desk, doing the same work. The only difference is that our paycheck was coming from Amdocs.
In early February 2009, we received another mandatory meeting invite for the employees in my group. In the data center auditorium, an Amdocs manager (from a different division, located in Champaign, who none of us had ever met) read a prepared statement stating that layoffs were necessary because the amount of work assigned to our group was falling short of what was anticipated at the time of the outsourcing. We should return to our desks and those employees being let go would receive an email while those not being let go would not. About an hour later, I received an email indicating I would be laid off on February 26, 2009. Approximately 500 of the 1000 people in my group were laid off in total.
The significance of that date? It was one year and one day after we had been outsourced to Amdocs. The contract between Amdocs and AT&T specified any employees laid off in the year following the outsourcing would be given severance at the AT&T rate (4% of salary per year of employment). After that date, severance would be paid at the Amdocs rate (1 week per year of employment). To rub salt in the wound, our final paychecks contained pay for 72 hours as we were let go on a Thursday and worked only 9 days out of the 10 day pay period (rather than the usual 86 2/3rs hours as salaried employees).
My source indicated Amdocs issued WARN Act notices in California, where they have stricter requirements, but AT&T and contractors avoided having to announce reductions in St. Louis.
In August 2009 our downtown grocer, Culinaria, opened for business. A year later businesses on the one block of 9th between AT&T and Culinaria were closing due to lack of customers. Culinaria was blamed but one person I spoke with says this was the height of the reductions.
ABOVE: Baladas’s Bistro, 9th & Pine, right after closing in August 2010ABOVE: The significant reduction in employees has also resulted in the closure of businesses in the ground floor of 909 Chestnut.
To make matters worse for nearby businesses, many of the remaining employees telecommute from home rather than come into the office. Reduced property taxes is another issue:
Inland’s affiliate, MB St. Louis, convinced St. Louis assessor Ed Bushmeyer that the AT&T tower is now worth just $135 million – about $70 million less than what it sold for in 2006.
Jerome Wallach, an attorney for MB St. Louis, argues that the building’s value plummeted because AT&T has slashed the size of its workforce there, and low occupancy cuts the building’s market value. The owner would have difficulty selling the half-full building for an attractive price when AT&T’s lease expires in 2017, he added.
But the building is not for sale now, Wallach acknowledged, nor has MB St. Louis given AT&T any rent breaks on the property because of its diminished presence. Wallach argues the rent shouldn’t factor into assessed value, which should be based on what it might sell for now in its half-full state. (stltoday.com from April 2012)
No doubt AT&T plans to completely vacate the 909 Chestnut building after their lease expires, in the meantime the numbers of employees at both buildings will continue to dwindle.
ABOVE: The MetroLink platform is located on the east side of 18th Street, totally exposed to the elements.ABOVE: Looking west toward the Union Station MetroLink Station from 16th & Clark Ave.
It’s been a white but I’ve written before (link) that I want to see the tracks from 16th to 18th street built over with a new building(s). With the platform moved under the train shed the new building(s) in this two-block stretch wouldn’t have to deal with space for an entrance to the station, making it more straightforward.
ABOVE: Looking east toward the Civic Center station from 16th & Clark Ave.
Another building could be built over the tracks for a block, before the track curves. This is basically from 16th to where the former 15th Street used to be. A walkway along the east edge could connect Clark Ave to the Gateway Transportation Center (Amtrak & Greyhound).
Back at 16th new buildings would be on each side to help frame the entrance into that area, now largely a jumble of surface parking. The area isn’t very big and has defined edges. Formerly this was an eight block area but the street grid has been dismantled to the point actual blocks are no longer recognizable. It can become more connected so when someone arrives in St. Louis they can easily walk to Union Station or the Drury Inn on 20th facing the train shed.
St. Louis’ Union Station reopened as a “festival marketplace” in 1985 and eight years later our light rail system, MetroLink, opened. For the last 18 years the Union Station stop is basically on the other side of 18th Street. Stairs and and elevator do come up on the east edge of the old train shed, but you’d hardly describe the station as well-integrated.
ABOVE: This is the view when you come up to grade from the MetroLink platform. An open-air parking garage!ABOVE: MetroLink trains travel through the old baggage tunnel under the historic Union Station train shed.ABOVE: The MetroLink platform is located on the east side of 18th Street, totally exposed to the elements.
My thought is build a new platform in the tunnel with steps and elevator coming up in the middle of the train shed. Currently some riders catch buses on 18th but once the Civic Center MetroBus Transit Center is rebuilt and expanded I expect we’ll see those lines move to 14th. Yes, the interior of the tunnel will need to be finished so it is not so creepy looking.
ABOVE: A walkway exists at the center point of the shed, coming up to grade at this point would put you very close to Hard Rock Cafe and equal distance between 18th and 20th Streets.ABOVE: Looking east toward the current MetroLink exitABOVE: Looking south you’d be in line to walk to the office buildings along the south edge of the property next to I-64.ABOVE: A decent connection that probably doesn’t get much use.
A new platform and direct access under the shed with improved pedestrian connections to main building, office buildings, 18th and 20th along with a revised parking lot could dramatically change impressions of Union Station. A few more free-standing structures like the Hard Rock Cafe could add to the activities. It’s been 27 years since Union Station reopened — it’s time for a major rethink of transit, train shed, and pedestrian circulation.
Please don’t suggest that Amtrak service be resumed at Union Station, I’m tired of hearing that every time I mention Union Station, train service at the new facility works fine.
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