It looks like the "Downtown West Loft District" is really starting to take off with 2020 Washington almost sold out and a number of others coming on line (i.e., Adler Frame Lofts, Majestic Stove Lofts, WestGate Lofts...)
The St. Louis Business Journal reports that McGowan|Walsh Historic Renovators is planning a $12 million redevelopment of a building at 2201 Washington Avenue. Plans include commercial space on the first floor with around 80 lofts on the top five floors.
McGowan|Walsh Historic Renovators is planning the $12 million residential/commercial redevelopment of a 116,000-square-foot building at 2201 Washington Ave.
That's wonderful. Now they need to start putting commercial developments there. Mixed use would be good. There needs to be foot traffic so people can feel safer.
Honestly, we're now starting to run out of buildings to be redeveloped! It will just be a matter of time before all the vacant lots around the Motor Parts building are home to infill development. It would be amazing to see the loft district stretch all the way to Jefferson on Washington - and beyond!
DeBaliviere wrote:Honestly, we're now starting to run out of buildings to be redeveloped! It will just be a matter of time before all the vacant lots around the Motor Parts building are home to infill development. It would be amazing to see the loft district stretch all the way to Jefferson on Washington - and beyond!
Downtown West has endless possibilities. With downtown's revival, this western area will have an obvious appeal. This expanded loft district could give rise to more commercial development and unique developments like City Museum.
Here's an article from 2002 on McCormack Baron's plans for Downtown West. I haven't heard anything about these plans since the article came out - does anyone know if any progress has been made, or if this plan has been shelved?
Baron's vision for downtown: 1,000 housing units
Margaret Jackson
With construction of the 22nd Street Parkway starting this fall, a proposal to build at least 1,000 residential units on the western edge of downtown is on the drawing board.
Leading the charge is Richard Baron, president of McCormack Baron & Associates Inc., who asked the architectural firm Trivers Associates to develop a site plan that includes residential and retail construction for the area between Market Street and Washington Avenue and 18th Street and Jefferson. The total investment in the area is expected to top $100 million.
"It's a really critical downtown development initiative that has to move forward now," Baron said. "It really grows out of the downtown plan and the effort to find locations where there could be some large-scale new construction done."
The key, Baron said, is the parkway, which will start at the Chestnut at 20th Street exit off Highway 40 and run north through the redevelopment area to Martin Luther King Drive. Property owners and developers have been reluctant to invest in the area for nearly 20 years because the parkway project never got off the ground.
The parkway, which will take about a year to complete, is a joint effort between the city and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), which will sell the property it doesn't use for its piece of the project.
The city is expected to select a contractor in October for its piece of the project, from Olive Street to Martin Luther King Drive.
"What we're interested in doing is setting the stage for development," said Barbara Geisman, the city's deputy mayor for development.
Among the first pieces of ground likely to be available for development is at 21st and Market, the western edge of the Gateway Mall. Trivers' site plan calls for a high-rise residential building overlooking the mall. It also includes a combination of apartments and condominiums in low- to mid-rise buildings, as well as townhomes with underground parking.
"What's needed for downtown is a major new neighborhood," said Andrew Trivers, president of Trivers Associates. "The beauty of this is that a lot of these housing units front the Gateway Mall. There's so much vacant ground that, by infilling it, we can reknit the fabric of the neighborhood which has been lost due to demolition and clearance for parking lots. It's a fabulous opportunity to really put in a major new residential development."
Nearly 9,000 people live in 5,879 residential units downtown, according to a report last year by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership. Since publication of the report, a few dozen units have opened but the big push will come over the next six to nine months as 513 units come online, most of which are in the Washington Avenue loft district, said Vihar Sheth, program manager for the partnership.
"There is every indication that the downtown market can easily support the residential development under way and planned for the near future," Sheth said. "All loft condo units are completely occupied, and the (occupancy) rate for loft apartments is in the high 90s."
McCormack Baron would not be the only developer involved in the project. Others that have indicated interest in the area include Westin Group, Conrad Properties and Balke Brown Associates, all based in St. Louis, and The Parmenter Co., based in Miami.
"What we're trying to do is get some of the major players in the area to start looking at land use and the potential for residential and mixed-use development," said Tom Reeves, executive director of Downtown Now! "There are going to have to be some efforts so that we can assemble meaningful sites so development of scale can take place.
The push to get the parkway project moving after nearly two decades of lying dormant came when GPX Inc. agreed to lease 180,000 square feet of space in Balke Brown's Gateway Commerce Center, said Steve Brown, president of Balke Brown. GPX, a consumer audio electronics company that employs more than 100 people, insisted on a written commitment from the city to get the parkway finished before it agreed to stay downtown, Brown said.
I just got back from taking a look at the Motor Parts Warehouse at 2201 Washington. It is nice to see this building getting rehabbed. At street level, this building was "modernized" by covering the etire ground level with aggregate-rock-surfaced concrete slabs (not sure if that is even a real term, but at least that is what it looks like). Sorry, I did not have my camera with me or else I would have taken some photos.
The 22nd Street Parkway has been shelved indefinetely. The City could not assemble all of the land necessary. I don't think it is necessary, just some simple stop light timing on the other streets would keep traffic moving. The lack of this parkway hasn't stopped development in that area. For example the 2020(old sporting news)lofts, a loft on Jefferson & Locust(I've seen a sign driving north on Jefferson but I don't know the name) are a couple in the area around the proposed parkway. As the old buildings get rehabbed, hopefully the parking lots are filled in as well. I'd like to see the current Highway 40/22nd street interchange redone to fit in with the street grid better and to free up land for new development.
it's probably a good thing that didn't go through (the parkway). Since they probably would have just done a glorified highway with a green median running along certain stretches (like Forest Park "parkway").
Would have just sliced the city in half. But, that area is not a pedestrian area right now anyway, so if that was really going to bring in 1000 units and then some other stuff, perhaps it could have been done.
It sounds like shelving the parkway is a good thing. The exit from Highway 40 could be improved though - maybe it would be better if it headed directly north instead of curling around to Pine street.
There is a plain, but cool, building directly north of the Tap Room's parking lot on Locust that would be perfect for retail. I wonder if the reason it's been vacant for so long is because it would have been demolished to make room for the Parkway.
DeBaliviere wrote:It sounds like shelving the parkway is a good thing. The exit from Highway 40 could be improved though - maybe it would be better if it headed directly north instead of curling around to Pine street.
There is a plain, but cool, building directly north of the Tap Room's parking lot on Locust that would be perfect for retail. I wonder if the reason it's been vacant for so long is because it would have been demolished to make room for the Parkway.
If that is the NE corner of 22nd and Locust, then yes that would be in the way of the parkway, interestingly enough that is the parcel the City hadn't acquired.
If no one posts any pics, I will try to get down there tomorrow. If you are familiar with the area, it has several large "Motor Parts Warehouse" ads painted on the west side of the building.
Citylover wrote:There is a large banner on the building and according to what it say this development will be know as the WestTown Lofts.
Great, thanks! I see there has been a "notice of public hearing" issued for the WestTown Lofts tax increment redevelopment plan to be held on June 15th.
It looks like this same hearing date will also include a "notice of public hearing" for the Bee Hat Building Lofts, the Packard Lofts and the Southside National Bank condminium project.
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