St. Louis Needs CEOs Creating Walkable Shopping Around Their Corporate Campuses

Over the last 6-8 years I’ve watched the corporate campus of Chesapeake Energy Corporation in Oklahoma City grow and grow and grow. But I wouldn’t use the old phrase “sprawling campus” because the site has developed quite dense and walkable.  Most of you in St. Louis have likely never heard of Chesapeake so here is a summary from Wikipedia:

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is the second largest producer of natural gas in the United States, a top 15 producer of U.S. liquids and the most active driller of new wells, according to an August 2011 investor presentation. It recorded 2Q 2011 natural gas production of an average of approximately 3.049 billion cubic feet (86,300,000 m3) of natural gas equivalent, a 9 percent year-over-year increase. The 2010 full year was Chesapeake’s 21st consecutive year of sequential production growth.

The company had a few buildings in an older office park when I first visited an employee. Recently those original buildings were razed.

ABOVE: Construction equipment has is a fixture of Chesapeake's campus

From such humble beginnings, the company’s Oklahoma City footprint has multiplied an astonishing 450 times. The Chesapeake campus now measures 2.7 million square feet. Employees work in 24 buildings, and there’s another half million square feet of office space under construction. (source)

They even have a page to talk up their campus:

Chesapeake’s 72,000-square-foot Fitness Center is located on campus, and plays host to a wide range of recreation programs, group exercise classes, cardio machines, weight room, basketball courts, racquetball courts, swimming pool, fitness assessments and preventative health screenings. Our adjoining athletic field hosts a variety of outdoor events during and after work, including coed flag football, soccer, kickball, team Frisbee, softball and personal training, and includes a quarter-mile track.

Also on campus are three restaurants, The Wildcat, Fuel and Elements, which offer a wide variety of healthy choices for breakfast and lunch. From a fresh salad bar, to made-to-order deli line and grill, employees have a variety of healthy alternatives to choose from.

The impressive fitness center was one of the first new buildings constructed as expansion began. Even though they have three restaurants for employees on campus they have developed shopping across Western Ave to the west. I posted about ClassenCurve last year.

ABOVE: ClassenCurve just opening in September 2010

Last month a new Whole Foods opened at The Triangle at ClassenCurve. Chesapeake is located on the edge of Nichols Hills (map), a small but very affluent suburb of Oklahoma City, their version of our Ladue. Tulsa has had a Wild Oats/Whole Foods for years, located in a space vacated by a former chain grocery. There have been several times I would stop at the Whole Foods in Tulsa to pick up items to eat at my parents house in Oklahoma City.

ABOVE: OKC's newly opened Whole Foods

Now I can stop at the huge new Whole Foods store in OKC when I’m visiting family.  The thousands of workers on Chesapeake’s campus can walk across the street to get a salad, food from the hot bar or pick up a few groceries. Whole Foods is in Oklahoma City now because of Chesapeake.

ABOVE: Bike racks are right out front, easy to use and actually used by cyclists

The campus-adjacent shopping isn’t just intend for Chesapeake’s employees, all can enjoy — assuming they can afford the types of shops locating in the retail spaces. By my standards the retail developments are barely walkable but compared to most of OKC they are a pedestrian paradise.

ABOVE: Public sidewalk along Classen in the campus looking west toward the retail

The architecture of the retail is a complete contrast to the campus. The campus has Georgian red brick structures while the retail is dark, modern and sleek.They compliment without copying. The retail doesn’t have any of the materials, look or logo of Chesapeake.

I can’t think of any Fortune 500 company in St. Louis that has done what Chesapeake has done. A-B? Nope. A.G. Edwards (now Wells Fargo)? Nada. What about institutions with deep pockets like Saint Louis University? Yeah right!

Chesapeake’s campus, like most corporate & institutional campuses, has lush lawns, water features, plantings and lots of parking. It’s edges separate the public from private but it does so in a friendly way. Architect Rand Elliott:

“We’re really fortunate,” Elliott stated “to have a number of CEO’s in this community, including Aubrey certainly, who believe that architecture is a powerful statement, and an important one for our community and for their businesses, as well.”

I was fortunate to have been paired with Rand Elliott on a project in middle schools during my freshman year at the University of Oklahoma College of Architecture. We need CEOs that will create walkable campus-adjacent space in the St. Louis region.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Where Do You Shop For Groceries?

Recently I was in the Target on Hampton and saw they had finally added a fresh food section. I often wondered why a fresh food section wasn’t included when this store opened in 2005.

ABOVE: New fresh food section in the Hampton Target

They had to steal square footage from other areas to get the space to expand their grocery offerings. So I began wondering where all of you shop for groceries. Do you go to big supermarkets like Schnuck’s or Dierberg’s? Whole Foods? Vincent’s? Walgreen’s?

ABOVE: Soulard Farmers' Market (click for website)

The poll this week asks the question and provides many answers. The poll is in the right sidebar.

- Steve Patterson

Ordering Food at a Walk-Up Window…in Ladue?

Recently I was in Frontenac and decided to stop for lunch on my way back downtown. I was already on Clayton Road so I decided to visit Red L Pizza owned by my friend John Rice.  Rice previously operated Colorado’s on Laclede & Restaurant Space on The Hill. Red L Pizza is located in the wealthy suburb of Ladue.

ABOVE: Red L Pizza in Ladue (click for website)

The above isn’t the entrance to the dinning room — this is it. You order at a window.

ABOVE: Customers ordering food at Red L's window

Rice explained:

“We have no food, nor do we prepare any food in our ordering booth. The window is merely an vehicle for controlling our food delivery to the automobiles or the patio. 95 % of our orders come via the telephone.”

I sat on the patio to wait for my food and sure enough a guy came around the corner from the kitchen to deliver my order to me.

ABOVE: Seating is limited to a few outdoor tables, most call in for pick up to take home

My visit was on a picture perfect day so as soon as I was done there were other customers ready for my table. Now that the weather has changed I suspect you won’t have any trouble finding a seat.

I’d like to see this model used more often. It’s not a full restaurant but it’s more than a food truck. It livens up this corner of this strip shopping center in Ladue (map).

- Steve Patterson

Readers Unsure About the Future of Retailing at St. Louis Union Station

Last week readers weren’t optimistic about the future of retailing at Union Station:

Q: Does retailing at Union Station have a future?

1. The surrounding blocks need infill with housing with local shoppers 37 [30.58%]
2. A few places will do well, but the rest of the retail space needs to be reallocated to other uses 26 [21.49%]
3. No! 20 [16.53%]
4. Sure, just needs better marketing 11 [9.09%]
5. Retailing under the shed needs to be opened to 18th Street 6 [4.96%]
6. unsure/no opinion 6 [4.96%]
7. Other: 15 [12.4%]

I was glad to see my favorite answer get the most votes.  The surroundings  are depressing, Union Station representatives say they aren’t a mall — they are a destination. Yes, when someone is in town that hasn’t seen the Grand Hall I take them to see it. That happens once every five years. In between I might go to an event or meet someone but otherwise I have no reason to visit.

ABOVE: Looking east on Eugenia St toward Union Station (click to view in Google Maps)

ABOVE: Only part of a planned highway loop around downtown was built, a huge waste of land to the west of Union Station.

The numerous dead spaces around Union Station must be filled in with offices and residential. Eliminate the on/off ramps at 22nd Street (add WB exits at Jefferson) and build a new neighborhood.

ABOVE: The east side of the old train shed along 18th St is a dead zone.

For a number of years now mall owners have been opening up walls and starting to face some retail spaces outward. Union Station must reevaluate the lack of connectedness to both 18th & 20th streets.

The other answers provided by readers were numerous:

1. It is isolated from the east, west, north and south. Wide roads are moats.
2. Tourists want a place 2 shop DT, but dont like US stores- need better retailers
3. needs free parking – then marketing
4. It could be an enclosed antique mall.
5. it would if trains stop there again!
6. Put in open market where paid parking exists!
7. reduce and concentrate retail to ground level, coordinated int. facelift & mktg
8. Reality is that if it has stores and life it will be snuffed out by thugs.
9. needs free parking and better marketing
10. Amtrack should of been positioned there, problem solved.
11. It’s isolated, needs free parking and needs specialty shopping such as outlets
12. Turn it into an IKEA.
13. Both items 1 & 2
14. Union Stations around the country have failed also – it is not just St Louis.
15. Needs something new!

Note the software presents poll answers in random order to each person so I have no idea what answers the person at #13 liked. For #12 the site is way too small for an Ikea even if you razed all the structures. Ikea stores are far from the urban core for a reason — they are auto-centric big boxes.

Hopefully buyers will come along and update the train shed and the city will work to fill in the surroundings.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Does Retailing Have a Future at St. Louis Union Station?

When St. Louis Union Station reopened in 1985 the festival marketplace retail concept was all the rage.

ABOVE: An empty retail space in the former midway at Union Station

But early optimism about retail at St. Louis Union Station faded as national chains gave way to smaller and smaller retailers, now many of those have left as well:

Visitors to St. Louis Union Station can still get a caricature drawn of their likeness, buy various Arch-themed tchotchkes and get a free sample of fudge and a song to go along with it.

But two longtime fixtures in the historic landmark — Houlihan’s and Key West Cafe — recently left the station. And the Bud Shop, which peddles an assortment of Budweiser-related mugs and memorabilia, is on its way out, too.

[snip]

The departures add to the uncertainty about the future of the venue — most notably the question of who will own it. The current owner, Union Station Holdings LLC, is seeking to sell the property. Bids are due Nov. 10.

“There’s no question it has fallen on harder times,” said St. Louis-based consultant Richard Ward with Zimmer Real Estate Services. “I think it’s in for some serious change, but I don’t know what the change might be.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Union Station’s retail has been continuously falling on “hard times” the entire twenty-one years I’ve been in St. Louis! I missed the first five years, likely the best years.

ABOVE: The food court and retail spaces under the train shed have a decidedly mall feel, but Union Station representatives say it's not a mall.

I have to wonder the future of such retail venues. The Marriott Hotel is doing well though — expanding into the midway space. The Grand Hall is a stunning space.

ABOVE: Window detail inside the Grand Hall at Union Station

I’ve made Union Station the poll topic this week, see right sidebar.

- Steve Patterson

THF Big Box vs. Planned Creve Coeur Downtown

This story caught my eye back in July:

THF Realty, a major developer of Walmarts and other big-box stores, is sniffing around the Orchard Lakes subdivision just north of Creve Coeur and near busy Olive Boulevard and Interstate 270.

A company representative met with subdivision trustees on June 3 to discuss a potential buyout of the entire subdivision, according to a subsequent letter from the trustees to subdivision homeowners. (STLToday)

Not surprising since vacant highway-adjacent parcels no longer exist. The subdivision of 256 single family homes is adjacent to I-270, extending more than half the distance from Olive to Page.

ABOVE: Blue box indicates Orchard Lakes, click to view map in Google Maps

THF Realty wants to make sure all those motorists driving on I-270 can see the generic big box development they are planning.

ABOVE: View of I-270 from Orchard Lakes subdivision

I knew where the subdivision was located but had never driven any of it’s streets, so last month I drove each street in the subdivision.

ABOVE: Orchard Lakes entrance sign

I grew up in a subdivision of similar vintage as Orchard Lakes. From a check of St. Louis County records these houses were built between 1961-66.   There is nothing particularly unique about the homes or the subdivision itself. With a few exceptions, all the homes looked well maintained. Many have newer windows and roofs.

The ranch houses of Orchard Lakes are typical of others from the period in the St. Louis region.

Few sidewalks exist in this subdivision, it’s not at all urban. Not rural either, decidedly suburban. There is no orchard, probably never was.

ABOVE: The only "lake" at Orchard Lakes is a decent pond at best.

There are lots of very nice mature trees though.

ABOVE: Leaving Orchard Lakes to the south the sign reads: Creve Coeur welcomes you.

Orchard Lakes is in unincorporated St. Louis County – barely. Creve Coeur has annexed commercial property along Olive Blvd but they didn’t want the adjacent residential areas. For a while now Creve Coeur has been planning to remake Olive & Ballas into their downtown.

In April 2002, the City of Creve Coeur adopted the Comprehensive Plan. Together, with the Pedestrian Plan and Design Guidelines, these plans set a standard for protecting community assets and strength- ening community character. Among the numerous recommendations made in the Comprehensive Plan are several for the Central Business District. Specifically, the Comprehensive Plan recommends the creation of a downtown (or town center) in the vicinity of the Olive-New Ballas intersection. (Plan PDF)

Orchard Lakes is just north of their proposed downtown/central business district:

The strong real estate market in Creve Coeur is anticipated to continue to be a basis for strengthening residential areas while at the same time stimulating major reinvestment in aging or underutilized commercial areas.

Clearly Creve Coeur’s planners didn’t envision the surrounding residential getting replaced by high traffic big box. To a degree this is what Creve Coeur gets for incorporating only the commercial areas along Olive, but not the adjacent residential to the north. Will be interesting to see if either gets built.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Name the future commercial district along Grand at the Old White Water Tower

My post last Monday was about the commercial district along Grand Ave around the Old White Water Tower (Grand Ave Water Tower Commercial Area Had Such Potential, Still Does). Although all the original buildings on the circle have been razed, I still see potential for the area.

ABOVE: The Old White Water Tower, looking south on 20th Street

Every good commercial district needs an identity (See The Loop, Grand South Grand, Cherokee, etc) so I figured why not see what we could collectively come up with for the stretch of East Grand Ave centered at the Old White Water Tower at North 20th Street.

ABOVE: Commercial buildings around North Grand Water Tower, winter 1990

The area is entirely in the College Hill neighborhood:

The name College Hill was given to this area because it was the location of the St. Louis University College Farm. This area, bounded generally by Warne (O’Fallon Park, I-70, Grand Blvd. and West Florrisant was acquired by the University for garden and recreation purposes in 1836, it was subdivided in the early 1870′s. The Bissell Mansion, the Old Water Tower at 20th Street and East Grand Avenue, and the Red Water Tower at Bissell Street and Blair Avenue are mainstays in this old Northside neighborhood and are testimony of a rich historical heritage. The housing of this neighborhood dates back between 1880 and 1920. Town and four family flats predominate the neighborhood, with a mixture of single family brick dwellings. The houses have large yards and are ideal for landscaping. The homes located near the crest of the hillside bluff enjoy a view of the river and its valleys. Nearly half of the housing dwellings are owner-occupied. Historically the area’s commercial center has been concentrated along East Grand around the Old Water Tower with a strip along West Florissant.

The neighborhood map looks like this:

The poll this week asks you to name the commercial district. I’ve provided the following answers:

• 20 Grand
• Bissell Point
• College Hill
• Grand College Hill
• Grand Water Tower District
• Old White
• The Column
• The Corinthian
• unsure/no opinion
• Doesn’t matter, will never become a commercial district again

You can also provide your own answer if you don’t like any of those provided.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Missouri Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday a Good Idea?

Few Readers Favor Banning Food Trucks

ABOVE: The Falafelwich Wagon on Market at 9th (click image to view their website)

Less than 10% of readers felt food trucks should be banned to help favor brick & mortar restaurants:

Q: St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights just passed an ordinance regulating itinerant food vendors, including trucks; thoughts?

1. Do food trucks even go out to Maryland Heights? 28 [24.78%]
2. The trucks and other “itinerant” vendors should be allowed to operate anywhere 26 [23.01%]
3. A uniform policy is needed for the region. 22 [19.47%]
4. With 90+ municipalities in St. Louis County different regulations will be a headache for vendors 16 [14.16%]
5. The trucks and other “itinerant” vendors should be banned to help brick & mortar restaurants 11 [9.73%]
6. unsure/no opinion 5 [4.42%]
7. Other answer… 5 [4.42%]

The “other” answers were:

1. The more the better – but should park legally
2. Screw Maryland Heights.
3. I think you guys should worry more about crime than MH.
4. there are a couple of independent ice cream vendors other than that not
5. I don’t mind the food trucks that are based in the city but won’t go t

Officials act like restaurants are the only ones making capital investments and paying taxes. Food trucks, and carts, are not cheap and the work is hard. Additionally they add life to a street which attracts more people.  More people means brick & mortar restaurants and retail stores will have more customers. Thoughts on the results?

- Steve Patterson

Restaurant, Lounge or Late Night Club?

ABOVE: University Lofts at 1627 Washington Ave where LeTreri Little wants to open Couture

The business Rich Girl Lifestyle, LLC is seeking a liquor license at the address 1627 Washington Ave, in the space previously occupied by Cummel’s.  The building is known as the University Lofts.  Few things are as controversial as the issuance of a liquor license and the application for the place to be called Couture is no exception.

In April liquor license compliance specialist Joe Kelly sent a letter to property owners, businesses & registered voters within a 350 feet radius of that address seeking their approval for a liquor license at a new “restaurant and lounge” to be called Couture. My building is within the radius but only those on the first three floors get any say about such matters. The city must think sound can’t reach me or my neighbors on the 4th floor or higher.

Teri Little indicated to KMOV’s Maggie Crane that Couture would close most nights by 11pm:

The proposed hours of operation are 11a-11pm M-Th, 11am-130am Fri-Sat.

In a nutshell, it’s a boutique styled cafe/lounge(speakeasy style venue) geared towards the fashion friendly. We will serve food and exotic handmade cocktails as well as some light retail. (source)

However, a resident of University Lofts told me they are now saying they will be open until 1am 7pm every night.  Late nights on Friday and Saturday nights are expected, especially on Washington Ave.  But the rest of the week the area is a mostly quiet residential neighborhood.

Neither LeTeri Little, or her business partner Angelique Hover, live in the City of St. Louis. Residency isn’t a requirement to obtain a liquor license, of course, but I don’t know that residents of nearby suburbs can appreciate the concern of those who live in close proximity to others.

ABOVE: Entry to the space from the shared lobby of the University Lofts

The resident I talked to indicated the lobby doorway would not be the main entrance.

ABOVE: Side entrance to 1627 Washington Ave, off the now closed 16th Street

He said the side door would be the doorway used instead.  I haven’t verified his claims but I doubt the doorway would be used as is, it’s just too steep.  It is possible to build a platform and easier steps to use this door, perhaps even a deck for outdoor seating.

ABOVE: 16th Street has been closed to cars since the streetscape on Washington was rebuilt

Using the side door makes since to bring some life to this short block of 16th Street.  The problem is the width of the public right-of-way is only 50 feet.

ABOVE: Looking north at 16th St, University Lofts (left) and Railway Lofts (right)

Given how sound can bounce from wall to wall it is absurd residents on the 4th floor or higher don’t get a say in liquor license applications.  My windows face the building next door, about 75 feet away, and I hear everything that goes on in the parking lot below. This limitation needs to be reviewed and revised.

ABOVE: The now closed Label bar on South 4th where an off-duty police officer was shot & killed

LeTeri Little’s husband, Chris Little, ran the Label in Chouteau’s Landing, which has been in the news since April:

St. Louis Police are mourning the loss of one of its veteran officers, following a downtown altercation in a nightclub parking lot. (source)

Very different area, there might be a few residences in the upper floors of these buildings but parking lots and other businesses is the norm.  Is there guilt by association? Yes, prior and affiliated businesses are a basis I would use to approve a new license — if I got a say in the matter.

Personally I like the idea of a new establishment near me and I like a drink now and then so I wouldn’t flat out reject it.  But most restaurants are not open until 1am seven nights per week.

- Steve Patterson