Lots of Entrepreneurship Happening in St. Louis’ Railway Exchange Building

Historically cities have  been incubators for entrepreneurs, bringing people together to exchange their goods. Many well-known early St. Louisans became wealthy selling goods/services to the growing city and country. Then population shifted to the suburbs, manufacturing jobs went oversees, and big corporations took the place of mom & pop businesses, online ordering with overnight delivery made going to stores quaint, etc.

May Department Stores, founded in 1877, moved to St. Louis from Denver in 1905, operated out of the upper floors of the Railway Exchange Building — over Famous-Barr. When May was acquired by Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 2005, the Famous-Barr became a Macy’s and the number of employees in the upstairs offices shrank considerably. The Railway Exchange Building was sold to a developer, Macy’s consolidated to 3 floors from 7 or 8, but it is closing next month. Knowing all this you might think nothing is happening in the Railway Exchange — but you’d be very wrong!

The 12th & 13th floors are the T-REx business incubator.

T-REx is a coworking space and technology incubator located in the heart of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. We’ve taken 60,000 sq/ft in the historic Railway Exchange Building and converted it into a hub for the St. Louis startup scene — now home to a growing community of entrepreneurs, developers, designers, mentors, educators and more.

T-REx now has 70+ business, with more coming.

Arch Grants seeks to create a more robust startup culture and infrastructure in St. Louis. To increase employment growth and establish St. Louis as a place where entrepreneurs want to start and grow their businesses, Arch Grants offers startups funding in the form of grants and supports the startups as they remain or transition to downtown St. Louis. The Arch Grants Business Plan Competition helps to shape the image of St. Louis among aspiring entrepreneurs and others looking to have a formative role in building a new entrepreneurial climate in St. Louis.

Through the Business Plan Competition, Arch Grants selects promising startups to receive $50,000. Typically, taking venture capital forces an aspiring entrepreneur to sacrifice a significant stake in their company in exchange for funds. This process is often limited to ventures with access to the startup hotbeds like Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston. Arch Grants provides entrepreneurs with the opportunity to start a business with non-dilutive capital. In addition, Arch Grants supports the growth of winning companies by providing access to business networking and mentoring, free legal and accounting services, collaboration with local universities, and discounts on housing and affordable office space. After receiving an initial Arch Grant, startups have the opportunity to secure a second round of up to $100,000 in funding along with direct access to St. Louis-based angel investors.

To provide winners with the best chance of success, Arch Grants partners with comparable economic development endeavors in St. Louis that currently support business growth in the city including Innovation Venture Mentoring Service, St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, Regional Business Council, Washington University, St. Louis University, University of Missouri at St. Louis, Webster University, and Harris Stowe University. (Arch Grants)

I met a couple of recent Arch Grant winners during my visit to T-REx last week; Andrew Couch and Gilda Campos moved their startup from San Diego to St. Louis after receiving a grant.

Couch & Campos rented a nearby apartment and walk to work, they don’t have a car. They said the decision to relocate was easy because of the enthusiasm of St. Louis to attract young businesses, they’d never have such an opportunity with venture capitalists on the West Coast.

Apparently other cities have spent big bucks to set up incubators of this size, but here they just had to repaint.  Some of these companies will fail, some will stagnate, but others will prosper. Let’s just hope the latter stay in St. Louis as they expand.

— Steve Patterson

Potential Development Sites Along Proposed Streetcar Line, Part 8: Central Business District

This post is the final in a series looking at potential development sites along the proposed initial route of the St. Louis Streetcar.  Previously I reviewed:

1. Olive 15th-16th
2. Olive 16th-18th
3. 14th & Olive To North Florissant & St. Louis Ave.
4. Olive 18th to Jefferson
5. Jefferson to Compton
6. Compton to Vandeventer
   
7. Vandeventer to Taylor & Children’s Pl
   

I saved the downtown CBD (Central Business District) for last. You may think downtown is done but I found lots of opportunities for additional development.

Coming east into downtown from the west the lines will be in the center of Olive Street. East of 14th the line goes to a single eastbound track to 6th Street, turning right (south) onto 6th, right (west) onto Chestnut St/Kiener Plaza, right (north) onto 7th, left (West) onto Locust to 14th. There are many areas not directly served by this compact loop, but it gets riders within 2-3 blocks of many places of employment/interest.

Ok, let’s start at 14th and Olive and do the loop and end up on the other side of the library at 14th & Locust.

Let me stop the flow of images briefly to talk more about this corner. Looks final, right? Drive to underground garage, stairs up to grade? Parking for commercial tenants and even a couple of lofts? You’re thinking there is no way this going to ever change. Seeing how it was built made me inquire with Louderman developer & resident Craig Heller of Loftworks, here’s his response:

Our plan has always been to build on that lot – parking for Louderman has been built under the lot. When it was built we sank piers to bedrock so that we build a new structure on top.

I had spotted the top of the piers. Folks, this is how you plan ahead! This was done 8-10 years ago and it may well be another 8-10 years before Heller can build on the corner. But when market conditions are right he’ll be able to see a handsome return on the cost of those piers. In the meantime, this would be a good corner for a food cart vendor with a few tables, chairs, umbrellas, etc. Ok, back to the streetcar route…

As you can see there are many opportunities along this route to re-urbanize and densify. Many more opportunities exist 1-4 blocks away from the route.

Here are two sentiments I’ve heard from readers recently:

• “The streetcar should go down Washington Ave.”
• “It would be nice if the activity on Washington Ave. would expand to other streets.”

If we’d put all our eggs into the Washington Ave basket we’d still wish years later the activity would reach other streets. By running the streetcar one and two blocks south of Washington Ave we’ll be expanding the activity while making it easier to get people to their Washington Ave places, like Mosaic.

Tomorrow we look at the entrepreneurial activity taking place on the 12th & 13th floors of the Railway Exchange building.

— Steve Patterson

St. Louis PrideFest Downtown June 29-30

Today and tomorrow the annual PrideFest celebration will take place in downtown St. Louis. For many years the parade was on South Grand, ending in Tower Grove Park. Before that the parade was on Euclid, ending in Forest Park.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the gay rights movement and why we celebrate in June:

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a group of gay customers at a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, who had grown angry at the harassment by police, took a stand and a riot broke out. As word spread throughout the city about the demonstration, the customers of the inn were soon joined by other gay men and women who started throwing objects at the policemen, shouting “gay power.”

Police reinforcements arrived and beat the crowd away, but the next night, the crowd returned, even larger than the night before, with numbers reaching over 1000. For hours, protesters rioted outside the Stonewall Inn until the police sent a riot-control squad to disperse the crowd. For days following, demonstrations of varying intensity took place throughout the city.

In the wake of the riots, intense discussions about civil rights were held among New York’s LGBT people, which led to the formation of various advocacy groups such as the short-lived Gay Liberation Front, which was the first group to use the word “gay” in its name, and a city-wide newspaper called Gay. On the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and near the Stonewall Inn in New York.

The Stonewall riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States. (civilrights.org)

In 1987, just 3 years before moving to St. Louis, I drove a vehicle in Oklahoma City’s inaugural Gay Pride Parade. I was just 20 and we didn’t know what to expect. Turnout was good and nobody got beat up.

Over my years in St. Louis I’ve attended our St. Louis parade on Euclid and on South Grand, participating a few times. As a downtown resident of 5+ years I’m glad to see the event relocate to downtown.

Some in the LGBT community, including many friends, aren’t happy about the move downtown.  They’re having a picnic this morning at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market followed by a block party at Hartford @ Grand. I’ll stop by if I can but I know I’ll be able to travel a few blocks to for the main event, here’s some basics from the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis:

PrideFest 2013 is happening this Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 at Soldiers’ Memorial.

On Sunday, the Pride 5K begins at 7 am, followed by the Pride Parade at 11 am. The Pride Parade will begin at Market and 8th Street, and will travel west to 18th Street for full disbandment. All street closures will be contained to Sunday.

Parade Closures

Market closed from Broadway to 18th Street, starting at 6 am

7th Street closed from Walnut to Chestnut, starting at 6 am

8th Street closed from Chestnut to Walnut, starting at 6 am

**All side streets leading into Market from Chestnut on the North and from Clark and/or Walnut on the South will be closed, starting at 6 am**

The exact closure times of some streets will be contingent on police direction that morning. Streets are scheduled to reopen by 3 pm Sunday.

5K Closures

The Pride 5k will do a continuous loop around Soldiers’ Memorial, starting at Pine & 15th Street; to Pine & Tucker; to Tucker & Market; to Market & 17th Street; back to Pine to complete the loop.

Pine closed from Tucker to 18th, 6 – 8:30 am

**Additional closures for the 5k will be side streets leading into Pine from Olive, between Tucker and 17th Street**

Tucker will be closed starting at 6 am from Olive to Clark and will reopen after the 5K contingent upon crowd size and police discretion.

The boyfriend and I will be at the parade Sunday, this will be his first.

— Steve Patterson

Diner To Reopen Soon At Tucker & Washington

It has been a couple of years since the 12th Street Diner closed, in the same location will be a place called King Louie’s — no connection to the former King Louie’s on Chouteau:

The new King Louie’s will be a citified homage to the old, with “griddle” burgers, shakes–and (we hope) their signature potato “planks”–but also a full bar featuring local beers. An open-grill will allow Chef Rook some of the creativity and flexibility found in modern diners, like the ability to cook steaks, chops, and gourmet “Royal” burgers made from prime beef cuts. We’ve been told the legendary Chef Dave’s Gumbo (the one we’ve called the best in town) will indeed have a place on the menu. (St. Louis Magazine)

A “citified homage”? I like how that sounds!

The main entrance faces Washington Ave. but the new sidewalk cafe will be a very nice addition to downtown, making this intersection interesting.

What remains to be seen is how the cafe will be done.

• Open seating?
• Short fence with limited entrance points?
• Regular height tables or tall tables that wheelchair users can’t use?
• Will a clear path be maintained?
• Awning or umbrellas?

The same family operates the Empire Deli & Pizza in the former B&T Pizza space to the east. I’ve been pleased so far.

— Steve Patterson

Plantings Along Tucker Add Interest

The project to replace the old Tucker Blvd, filling in the long-abandoned passenger rail tunnel, is nearing completion. Motorists and pedestrians can now travel between Washington Ave and Cass Ave., approximately 3/4 of a mile (map).  Tuesday night the boyfriend and I went for a walk up to Cass and back (I rolled, he walked).

I’d been up/down the new Tucker a few times before but this time I paid attention to the plantings located in bulb-outs at the ends of parking lanes, medians, tree lawn, etc.   Some of the bulb-outs are designed as a rain garden, set up to catch rainwater from the road and sidewalk.

I’m excited to see Tucker 100% complete with all the planting areas weeded. I’m also looking forward to seeing development occur along Tucker, especially at Cass.

Since this area lacks a form-based code, or anything else requiring new construction to recognize the existence of the new public sidewalks, I’m afraid it’ll end up being geared only to motorists, ignoring pedestrians completely.   Maybe Paul McKee will do the.. right thing and develop the area with pedestrians and motorists in mind…

— Steve Patterson