From Food Desert to Food Oasis, The St. Louis Grocery Market Has Changed

For many years St. Louis’ near south side was a food desert:

Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead of supermarkets and grocery stores, these communities may have no food access or are served only by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options. The lack of access contributes to a poor diet and can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. (USDA)

With the recent opening of the Save-A-Lot in Jefferson Commons and Fields Foods last week, this former food desert is now a food oasis.  St. Louis still has a number of food deserts, but this is slowly changing. Let’s take a look at the near south side.

Jefferson & Lafayette used to have a Foodland, but it closed years ago. On the SE corner an ALDI used to serve the same customer base, but it also closed years ago.  Less value conscious customers have always had to go outside the area for their groceries.  Now the grocery needs of most everyone should be met with two new grocery stores: Save-A-Lot and Fields Foods.

Save-A-Lot

The Save-A-Lot opened in the southern portion of the old Foodland space, now known as Jefferson Commons. I was at the community meeting in May 2012 when it was announced that Save-A-Lot was announced as the grocery store coming to the development, the reaction in the packed gymnasium was mostly disappointment. Save-A-Lot, based in Earth City, is a subsidiary of Minnesota-based SuperValu.

I’m not a huge fan of Save-A-Lot or ALDI’s, but I’m also not too snobby to shop at either, on occasion.  We stopped in to shop at the new Save-A-Lot in December and I was very impressed. Sure, cases of product with the front of the boxes cut off doesn’t make for a special shopping experience. As a label reader, I rarely found an item with a bar code that didn’t contain items I won’t consume (high fructose corn syrup, for example). That said, the fresh greens & other produce was much better than I expected, beautifully displayed at the entry too.

Nice for the immediate area, but nothing to make me hop on a bus every week to shop.

Fields Foods

This new concept is what changes the local grocery market. Years ago downtown developer Craig Heller opened City Grocers to help sell more lofts. Better than nothing, it was an upscale convenience store: limited selection with high prices. When Schnucks opened Culinaria in 2009 Heller wisely shuttered City Grocers.  Fields Foods is also an effort by a real estate developer, Chris Goodson of Gilded-Age, but the similarities end there.

Fields Foods is part of a bigger concept:

The St. Louis Food Hub is a unique social enterprise that distributes, processes and retails foods from local farmers and food producers. Headquartered in the midst of the city’s historic Lafayette Square district, the food hub is a collaborative effort between three businesses that share the same vision.

• Fields Foods is a full-service grocery store specializing in bringing local foods to local shoppers.
• Virtual Food Hub is an online platform where local farmers and those who purchase their products connect to do business.
• Farm to Family Foods is a distributor, processor, and wholesaler of local foods.

Together, these Food Hub companies are pioneering the effort to consolidate a regional food system, setting new benchmarks for food desert remediation and breathing healthy life into urban renewal.

At the opening they talked about opening more Fields Food stores. Perhaps on the near north side?

The Best Choice brand is an affordable line of products from Kansas City based Associated Wholesale Grocers, these products are also available at stores like Save-A-Lot and Straub’s. Fields Foods has a nice salad bar, hot food bar, deli, etc. We were there for the ribbon cutting on Friday and returned on Saturday to shop.

Impact

Fields Foods is larger than Culinaria, so it’s able to offer a wider selection of products. I can see myself taking the short bus ride to shop here once or twice a week.  Others may stop by when driving to/from downtown.

The other store that will be impacted is Local Harvest Grocery, on Morgan Ford at Arsenal. Local Harvest carries a decent selection of organic and local products, Fields Foods will cut into that market. How much isn’t known yet.

When Whole Foods opens at Euclid & West Pine in 2015 it’ll be equal distance to downtown as Fields Foods, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens then. I’ve been frustrated by Culinaria’s selection for years, their recent modifications improved things a bit. Hopefully Fields Foods will be a wake up call to Schnucks that they can’t continue merchandising Culinaria the way they have been.

Future

As mentioned, we still have some areas that are a food desert.  These areas could benefit by having a Fields Foods to provide a source for quality food and employment. I also wonder if the changes in the local market, especially the upcoming Whole Foods, will cause Trader Joe’s to get serious about a location in the city? I don’t like the initial site plan of Midtown Station, but the location would be excellent.

Also, Fields Foods might fail, predicting the grocery market isn’t easy. National chain Wild Oats, before being bought by Whole Foods, opened a second St. Louis area store in Chesterfield.  Despite the affluence of Chesterfield the store failed and closed.  After sitting vacant for a few years, a Trader Joe’s opened in the space.  Local Harvest Grocery opened a 2nd location in Kirkwood in late 2012, but it closed less than a year later.

I think Fields Foods is making a big enough entry into the local grocery scene that some other stores, like Culinaria, will notice. Given the population isn’t increasing, every dollar spent at a new store is a dollar not being spent at an existing store.

I hope Fields Foods propers and opens new locations, each with good pedestrian access.

— Steve Patterson

Dirty Laundry: Grand Center, Emily Pulitzer, Etc

Over the last decade the midtown area known as Grand Center has physically changed; new construction of buildings with rehabs of many others, bonds issued, etc. Most outside observers would say the changes have been positive.  What’s largely unknown to many is the behind the scene dealings of the many players & legal entities involved, it wasn’t always pretty.

Before getting into those issues, let’s take a look at a current project. The Public Media Commons ground was broken on October 30, 2012:

The one-of-a-kind Public Media Commons will give the Grand Center district a focal point for art, culture and public dialogue in an open environment featuring interactive technology, large-screen projections on the entire east wall of the Nine Network building, performance stages for small groups, multiple seating areas, green space and a window into Nine’s studio. It represents the first section of a pedestrian corridor that will extend through the middle of Grand Center linking the district from Grandel Square on the north to Lindell Boulevard on the south. (Oct 30, 2012 ground breaking press release)

The commons will serve as a focal point for art, culture and public dialogue. It will feature interactive te3chnology, large-screen projects on the entire east wall of the Nine Network building, performance stages for small groups, multiple seating areas, green space and a window into Nine’s studio.

Construction is expected to take a year. (KSDK w/video)

Construction was expected to be finished around October 2013. You can see a promotional video here.

I inquired about the delay and received the following from Terri Gates, Public Relations Manager at the Nine Network of Public Media:

Since construction began on the Public Media Commons, there has been considerable ongoing work – some of it visible from the street, including foundation work and the recent installation of grids covering the east exterior wall of the Nine Network building. But much of the ongoing work has been behind-the-scenes infrastructure, programming and electrical work not visible from the street. It is a complex project that has required intricate integration of the technology.

As you probably know we’re planning for the Public Media Commons to be an innovative focal point for art, culture and public dialogue with large-screen projections, a performance stage, and digital interaction. The Commons will also include a view of the Nine Network studios in action.

We had planned to complete the project sooner, but we can say with a high level of confidence that the Public Media Commons will open this summer of 2014.

I remain skeptical, but we’ll see.

Ok, let’s dive into the dirty laundry! Over the years I’ve touched on some aspects, like in February 2007 when I wrote St. Louis University is a Secular Institution, Not a Catholic or Jesuit University. SLU prevailed in court but by then Grand Center’s plan to use eminent-domain to take a property from a business owner was dead.

The redevelopment in the area is done through Grand Center, Inc., the Vandeventer-Spring Redevelopment Corporation (VSRC), and City Center Redevelopment Corporation CCRC).  CCRC was created in February 1980, VSRC in March 1998.  Grand Center, Inc in March 1987.  Over the years members have come and gone for all three, currently Grand Center’s President Vincent C. Schoemehl, Jr. is the primary member of all three.

These organizations have the ability to issue municipal bonds to fund projects.

I reviewed the board members for both the CCRC and VSRC for the last decade.   All of the following were board members had been in place since at least 2005, but were last listed as board members in 2010:

• Marguerite “Peg” Weathers (SLU)
• Douglas L. Kelly (Wells Fargo Advisors)
• Reginald Dickson (Buford, Dickson, Harper & Sparrow)
• Peter Bunce
• Don Lents (Bryan Cave)
• Michael Neidorff (Centene Corporation)
• Emily Rauh Pulitzer (Pulitzer Foundation)
• W. Thomas Reeves (Pulaski Bank)

After 2010 the boards of both were Schoemehl, his administrative assistant, and Grand Center’s COO. I inquired to find out why these esteemed members of the St. Louis community were no longer on the boards of CCRC & VSRC, here’s the communications:

Patterson: I’m curious why community leaders like Tom Reeves, Peg Weathers, Emily Pulitzer, etc were directors of two redevelopment corporations for many years but not 2011 and later. A disagreement?

Schoemehl: The state required social security numbers after 2010 and lawyers advised against our limiting the sharing of such info to the smallest number of people possible; liability issues. Thus I am a sole direct.

Patterson: Thanks for the quick reply, but I’m confused. I’ve never had to submit my social security number to the SoS. It seems everything submitted by corporations is public record — no ss #s. Also many of these people are still on the Grand Center board. Can you clarify so that I can understand?

Schoemehl: Let me check with Will Zorn, our lawyer.

I’ve not yet heard back on a more logical reason why these individuals are no longer serving as directors of the two redevelopment corporations, many are still directors on Grand Center’s board.

Because of a 2009 lawsuit we can learn more from documents, including deposition transcripts. In a June 2013 deposition Emily Rauh Pulitzer didn’t recall being a director of the organizations.

In this 5 minute video from the deposition, Pulitzer starts off saying she wasn’t on the board of either at a prior date but when shown documents she says at 4:30 “well, I guess this indicates I was a member.”   For the complete context, the above clip starts at 1:12:15 in the full two hour video deposition. The transcript is here.

As a director of the redevelopment corporations, Pulitzer moved to borrow funds to stabilize the Spring Ave Church so it could be used in conjunction with The Light Project exhibition the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts was hosting. This would appear to be a conflict of interest.

The church and lot to the north are owned by Grand Center, Inc. Case 0922-CC01036 – PAUL GUZZARDO V GRAND CENTER INC ETAL was voluntarily dismissed last year, Plaintiff Paul Guzzardo has indicated he plans to refile the case within the next 90 days. I intend to go through the transcripts of the five depositions in this case, looking for more information on how these quasi-governmental boards conduct their business.

Major media, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in particular, declined to report the information presented here. The Post-Dispatch was previously owned by the Pulitzer family.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: What Name Do You Use For A Vehicle For Hire?

In the last 4-6 weeks I’ve taken 5 taxicab rides: a morning meeting, three parties, and to the ribbon cutting of Fields Foods on Friday.  That’s more rides than the rest of my 23 years in St. Louis combined!

What I’m curious about is the name people, and companies use, to describe the vehicle. Here are the three most common names:

• Taxicab
• Taxi
• Cab

To my knowledge, they’re interchangeable. To an extent, we probably use all three at one time or another. What I’m looking for in the poll this week is the name you use most often, the one you’d blurt out first. The poll is in the right sidebar.

— Steve Patterson

Utility Work on Washington Ave

For a while now workers have been cutting a trench in Washington Ave to do utility work.

In the process it has been closed to eastbound traffic. Both directions of the #94 & #97  MetroBus routes have been rerouted to Locust St. Thankfully I haven’t needed to catch either of these for a while. I usually catch them at one of three stops between 14th-18th, I’ve not seen any temporary stops on the reroute. If I need the bus I’ll have to travel to a stop beyond the reroute, to the normal route or see online if Metro has posted temporary stop locations.

The noise has been loud during the day, I can only imagine how loud for those with windows facing Washington Ave. But new infrastructure doesn’t just pop into place — noise, dust, inconvenience, etc are part of the process.

Just looking forward to when the project is completed.

— Steve Patterson

Three Years (Mostly) Smoke-Free in St. Louis City & County

Three years ago today smoking bans took affect effect in St. Louis and St. Louis County, making all restaurants and most bars smoke-free. In both city & county, small bars were exempted. In the city, the exemption expires after five years.

Are the exempt businesses preparing for two years from today when they’ll be smoke-free as well? Hopefully they’ve used the last three years to build a patio, or plans are in the works for the next two years.

The opponents of the ban were correct, I’ve been annoyed by the number of smokers outside of some businesses. But I try to pass quickly or take a different route — much better than others having to inhale second-hand smoke indoors.

A year into the bans St. Louis magazine did a story on the impact, see Of Smoking Butts and Chapped Booties: Smoking Ban Delights Some Restaurateurs, Enrages Others. In short, some said business was better, others not so much.

I know I’m happy, I go out more often. I don’t spend time trying to decide where to find a smoke-free restaurant to meet friends for dinner. We still spend time debating location & menu though.  I’ve not seen any studies on the St. Louis market to see what impact, if any, the bans have had.

I’d like to see casinos become smoke-free, I had to go through the Lumiere Link a couple of months ago and it was awful passing by the casino area. I’m also tired of hotels having smoking and non-smoking rooms. The Chicago hotel I want to stay at next month only has a disabled room with roll-in shower in smoking. I’d rather not shower than try to sleep in a smoking room.

— Steve Patterson