Remains of President Casino on Riverfront

The President Casino closed in June 2010:

The President Casino, St. Louis’ first and oldest gaming facility, will not re-open before its license is due to be turned over to the state next week, Pinnacle Entertainment confirmed Thursday. (STLtoday.com)

The casino was inside the historic SS Admiral. When no buyer came forth for the ship, it was cut apart and sold for scrap metal. But not all traces of the casino are gone.

My guess is the city now owns these improvements as part of a lease agreement for the space on the riverfront. What will become of it? Could a tour boat company use it? Another use? Or will this sit like this for years as it deteriorates? I don’t have the answers.

– Steve Patterson

Eads Bridge Rehabilitation To Begin

Last week local and federal officials gathered on the Arch grounds with the historic Eads Bridge in the background:

Deputy Federal Transit Administrator Therese McMillan today joined Missouri and Illinois officials to kick off the Eads Bridge Rehabilitation Project, which will repair and restore the historic, 138-year old bridge and ensure safe and efficient light rail service for thousands of people who use the bridge to cross the Mississippi River every day.

[snip]

The $36 million project is funded in part by more than $34 million in federal dollars, including $25 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and $9 million in additional federal transit funds directed to the Bi-State Development Agency of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District. Local funds will cover the remaining cost to modernize and repair the bridge, which was built in 1874. (Source)

MetroLink light rail trains began using the lower level to cross the Mississippi River in 1993. The upper level was closed to vehicles and pedestrians for many years but was reopened within the last 10-12 years.

This work won’t be visible but is necessary for continued use to the bridge. One speaker noted that before the Arch, the Eads Bridge was St. Louis’ most recognized structure.

It’s nice to see investment in infrastructure but we have so much the needs so much work, how will we ever pay for it all?

“When you look into the future and you begin to look at what our investments will mean when we’re competing with China, India, emerging economic powers like Brazil, we better have our infrastructure ready to go, to be able to compete on a global basis,” said Victor Mendez, who runs the Federal Highway Administration. (CBS News)

Funding is largely based on state & federal fuel taxes but the income hasn’t kept pace  with costs.

– Steve Patterson

Dear Rams, Good Luck In Your Next City, We Don’t Need The NFL

No doubt about it, I’m ready for the Rams to pack their bags. Head to Los Angeles, or London, I don’t care. St. Louis has three professional sports teams right now, that’s at least one more than we can realistically support. Without question the St. Louis Cardinals MLB team has the most love from the region.

I don’t think we, as tax payers, should support any progressional sport other than buying a ticket if we want to see a game. These teams are owned by very wealthy people who do this as a hobby. That said, I do believe in investing in infrastructure so that additional private investment is made. But I don’t see investing $1 to get a 15¢ return. I want government to invest $1 and get a $5 return on that investment through additional investment and/or tax revenue.

With the number of MLB games and the excellent performance of the Cardinals we probably break even on the government-funding of Busch Stadium. Well, once we actually see some revenue from a complete Ballpark Village. But NFL plays so few home games per year it seems impossible to get a decent return on our investment. I’ve not studied the numbers but many have. I found a PDF called 8 Reasons to Reject Publicly Financed Stadiums For Professional Sports Teams that has a good list:

1. Public Money for Private Gain.
2. Negligible Economic Benefits.
3. Costs Outweigh the Benefits.
4. Destroys jobs and drives down wages.
5. Stadiums can be built with private money.
6. Doesn’t Improve Team Performance.
7. Doesn’t improve team attendance. Research also shows that new stadiums have little impact on long-term attendance.
8. Diverts resources from funding priorities.

Click the link above to see explanations for each item.

But perceptions about sports will muddy this issue. The following are taken from the same commenter on the original post, but from two different comments:

 If St. Louis goes dark in pro football, it will be a big loss to the region.  St. Louis needs and can support three pro sports.

Warning, the sky will fall. We need three pro teams. BS!! For most of the last 50-60 years we’ve had 2-3 pro sports teams. How has that benefitted us? We’ve lost population, schools have declined, the corporate headquarters here has dropped. If you’ll have less civic pride if we go from three to two pro teams then you don’t really appreciate all that St. Louis is about. We didn’t have pro football when I moved here in 1990, it wasn’t important to me personally.

The provided answers in my poll last were very biased, something I try to avoid. But it happened.

Q: How Should The St. Louis Region, via the CVC, Respond To The Rams?

1. Wish them well in London, LA, or ? 68 [45.64%]
2. Agree to their proposal but only if it comes with a new 30-year lease 51 [34.23%]
3. Remind them the Cardinals won the World Series twice since the one time the St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl. 14 [9.4%]
4. Other: 13 [8.72%]
5. Bendover and pay whatever it takes to keep them here for the last 10 years of the original lease 2 [1.34%]
6. Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.67%]

The other answers were:

1. certainly don’t bendover but emphasize compromise
2. Make some improvements but not 700m worth
3. Less Public $, More Private $ otherwise deal’s over.
4. I’m trying to care about this, but I just can’t.
5. Your options certainly show your bias
6. how about compromise, STL NEEDS NFL
7. Negotiate a new lease, meet the Rams somewhere in the middle
8. Ignore them.
9. Tell Kroenke to go **** himself
10. Don’t have anymore regional funds to waste on the rams…
11. The answers you provided clearly show your bias in this poll
12. negotiate
13. tif or special use tax

If the Rams want to build a privately financed facility in Fenton or somewhere  out in big open space I’d have no objections. Otherwise, get lost. The CVC’s original proposal was excessive and the Rams’ response isn’t even close to reality. They are testing us to see how gullible we are. We were desperate to get a team twenty years ago when we were building the dome but weren’t awarded an expansion team. We got screwed on the terms of the original lease, I don’t want us to get screwed again.

— Steve Patterson

Save A Lot To Anchor Jefferson Commons

Last week details become public for the development to be known as Jefferson Commons. You may know it by the last grocery occupant, Foodland. The development is located at Jefferson & Lafayette (Google Maps). From the developer:

Green Street and partners purchased the vacant 1601 S. Jefferson property in late 2011. Since closing on the property we have been diligently working on redevelopment plans to create a sustainable multi-tenant retail property that will provide goods and services to the community. Our anchor tenant will be Save A Lot who will occupy the 17,600 SF Suite A. In addition to Save A Lot we are in final negotiations with a nationally recognized fitness center and a nationally recognized sandwich shop. We do have additional space available at the site and we are currently talking to other prospective retailers who will be a good fit for the neighborhood. (Jefferson Commons page)

The grocery store was built originally as a Kroeger.

I did a 3-part series last year on this site: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. The owner of the main site, Green Street Properties, presented their redevelopment to the community a week ago.

The following drawings are preliminary concepts:

Save-A-Lot grocery would occupy “Suite A” at the south end of the building.  At the meeting residents expressed both support and disappointment in Save-A-Lot.  Those supporting the grocery chain said they were tired of this being vacant and they wanted a market within walking distance. Those disappointed mentioned a preference for a store with better food, such as organic, as would be the case with a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s. The site is in the 6th ward (Triplett) but 19th ward Ald Marlene Davis correctly pointed out that Dierberg’s, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s aren’t coming to the city.  However, I was told that Whole Foods “had an LOI in place on a urban style store in the CWE. They backed out when their pedestrian traffic counts didn’t hold up.”  Pedestrian traffic  counts, not vehicular traffic counts!

Other tenants in the building would include a fitness center and possibly a hardware store. Green Street doesn’t own the small strip center to the north but they are trying to acquire it. A new building would be added within the main parking lot, it includes a drive-thru.

I’m happy to see pedestrian access being added but I suggested a few points via email to the architect as they finalize the site plan:

1. Provide an access route to the park to the left of the upper left corner, residents currently use an opening in the fence to have direct access
2. Provide an access route to the neighboring property along Hennrieta Pl so residents of that street have direct access to the site.
3. Make the access route from Lafayette  Ave to the main building a straight shot rather than attempting to divert pedestrians to the east.
4. Provide an access route to the hotel at the south edge of the site so hotel guests can easily walk over to buy snacks or have dinner at a new restaurant.
5. Distribute bike parking rather than cluster all in front of Suite B.

At the meeting two individuals said they wished the building had red brick to fit in. Both times I cringed, why must we wrap everything  in the same red brick? A century ago the materials used and colors were vast.

I like the modern exterior that’s proposed, a good reuse of the existing structure.  Now’s your chance, share your thoughts in the comments below.

– Steve Patterson

Have A Great Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day:

Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed annually in the United States on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. (Southern ladies organizations and southern schoolchildren had decorated Confederate graves in Richmond and other cities during the Civil War, but each region had its own date. Most dates were in May.) By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars. Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. As a marker it typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

By the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as people visited the graves of their deceased relatives in church cemeteries, whether they had served in the military or not. It also became a long weekend increasingly devoted to shopping, family gatherings, fireworks, trips to the beach, and national media events such as the Indianapolis 500 auto race, held since 1911 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. (Wikipedia)

Have a great day!

Peace,

Steve Patterson