Will Renewed Activity Get Vacant Space Leased?
555 Washington Ave is one of our most stunning buildings. It, along with the narrow 511 Washington, are joined internally:
These two facades cover one building behind; the two structures were elaborately joined together in 1898, at which time 555 gained its magnificent recessed entryway. The facade at 511 is one of only two curtain-wall cast iron facades left in the city.
After a period of decline lasting into the 1970s, the building was renovated in 1987 as office space and remains in use today. As with the previous block, this one is isolated from the string of older buildings found to the west — but the profile view of their heavily articulated street elevations, with the old Stix building rising beyond, is quite impressive. (Built St. Louis)
When the St. Louis Centre Pedestrian Bridge over Washington Ave came down two years ago many more people began to see this facade.
The first floor space at 6th & Washington remains vacant. I’m hopeful that all the activity with the Laurel & MX across 6th Street will help the building’s owner lease the first floor space.
– Steve Patterson
If the rest of the city had some type of reasonable transit system/city plan you would have a hard time keeping retail businesses away from the location. The fractured planning approach to St. Louis creates problems: for instance the apparent carte blanche McKee has on the northside or the terrible suburban development by St. Louis University adjacent to a major rail station on Grand Ave illustrates the problem well.
The decline of St. Louis continues, it is a feature against the backdrop of some successes.
It fools people, the citizens, into thinking everything has turned around for St. Louis when in fact it hasn’t. The real question to ask is why aren’t retail businesses knocking down the door for a chance to lease these spaces that are almost in the middle of downtown?
Downtown or ghost town? Nice photos, but few pedestrians / potential shoppers. Yes, a better transit system could help, but the real issue is a serious lack of critical mass. As much as many of us despise shopping centers and malls, they “work” because they concentrate potential shoppers. Shoppers fall into two groups, focused and browsers. Focused shoppers know what they want, have a pretty good idea where to find it, want to get in and out quickly, and downtown can be a challenge. Browsers engage in retail therapy, savor the hunt, the experience, and are more prone to seek out urban boutiques. This dynamic changes, obviously, as more people choose to live downtown, but if I, someone who lives near Hampton Village and works in Lemay, need something from a Walgreens or a Schnucks, I’m not going to trek all the way downtown, bypassing several nearly-identical outlets along the way, nor will I head out ito the county, for the same reasons. “Better transit” or parking issues have little to do with it, it’s all about about convenience and the time investment required. “Why aren’t retail businesses knocking down the door for a chance to lease these spaces that are almost in the middle of downtown?” Because they don’t see enough potential customers living or working nearby or walking past the potential location – it’s all about the numbers!
Yes I still remember when the streets of downtown were full. From your comment you seem to take the attitude there is nothing that can be done. I disagree of course, which is is why I think the real question is why such a beautiful building near the nexus of downtown wouldn’t have people lined up to rent the space?
Of course an analysis of the problem is complex, transit and many other factors come into play.
Just look at the insane decision to allow St. Louis University to build suburban style developments next to a major train station on Grand Ave. Not only does it impact the viability of the transit system, it also impacts downtown, where the trains go when they head East.
This is one small example out of many possible. I have suggested a number of times the strategic goals of the City of London as a method to outline comprehensive approaches to the built environment. The published goals inform citizens, developers and the political governance of what is expected in development of the city.
Right now, either through ignorance of city planning or perhaps the oil cartels still influence public policy there is no interest in identifying problems and solving them.
Thus you end up with a situation with Paul McKee who everyone knows plans to do work on the northside, yet the city has not offered public solutions and preferences to serve public interests. What has it been now 2 years?
There is no mechanism in place to insure the development of a healthy city. Paul McKee will likely be like St. Louis U and be allowed to do whatever the hell he wants, the long term consequences to the City and its people be damned.
St. Louis is a world leader in the percentage of population lost. It is clear something is still very wrong the way things are done in this City. It amazes me how people seem to accept the mediocrity.
The lack of demand for this commercial space downtown is a sign of deeper problems in the City and the region. It has nothing to do with malls and other shopping opportunities, all cities have those.
St.louis is a very racist city. Until more white people start getting over being around black people in St.Louis you are going to continue to see this happen. Its getting better over time but its just taking longer in St.Louis than other cities.
A good example of the racism here is what happened On Washington Ave last weekend. All of that force is not for the gun shots but is instead to try to scare black people from coming on Washington. It does not take that much of a police force for some gun shots. They dont even use that much of a police force when a murder happens but then wonder why the criminals are getting bolder in this city.
Why is it racist for the police to secure a popular entertainment district after gunshots were fired there? Is your point that white people (or any people) should “get over being around black people” or “get over” being around stray bullets? Gunfire on a crowded, public street is kind of a big deal. Bullets have no race.
Wouldn’t this space be near the proposed downtown Metro bus center that is intended to be a hub for proposed Express Bus service? Curious,
Retail Traffic is a magazine and website focused on “getting vacant space leased”. This article about what interests 7-Eleven is just one example of what potential tenants are looking for: http://retailtrafficmag.com/news/7_eleven_exercisez_smart_growth_06192012/?NL=RET-02&Issue=RET-02_20120619_RET-02_585&YM_RID=jzavist@gmail.com&YM_MID=1319759