Metropolitan Development Enterprises is planning to build a $67 million, 22-story condo tower in the heart of the Washington Avenue loft district. The tower is the largest new-construction residential building proposed for downtown.
Chicago-based Metropolitan was expected to present plans to build the mixed-use building at 1400 Washington, on the site of Erlich's Dry Cleaners, at a Tax Increment Finance Commission meeting Feb. 22. Metropolitan has requested $12 million of TIF for the project.
St. Louis Business Journal - February 23, 2007by Lisa R. Brown
Metropolitan Development Enterprises is planning to build a $67 million, 22-story condo tower in the heart of the Washington Avenue loft district. The tower is the largest new-construction residential building proposed for downtown.
Chicago-based Metropolitan was expected to present plans to build the mixed-use building at 1400 Washington, on the site of Erlich's Dry Cleaners, at a Tax Increment Finance Commission meeting Feb. 22. Metropolitan has requested $12 million of TIF for the project.
Ivie Clay, St. Louis Development Corp.'s director of communications and marketing, said a public hearing on the project will be held April 11.
Metropolitan purchased the building from Max Erlich in August 2006 for $1 million. It will demolish the building and construct a new one on the site and on an adjacent vacant lot it purchased from Dragon Development Co., led by Brad Waldrop of St. Charles, for $524,000.
The development, to be named the Skyhouse, will have 166 condos, with prices starting in the mid-$200,000s. One-, two- and three-bedroom units will be available, ranging in size from 850 to 2,230 square feet. The top three floors will feature 12 penthouse units.
Metropolitan's Director of Marketing Nellie Donovan said the developer wants to reach an untapped market downtown with traditional-style condos in a newly built structure. "We looked at what was missing, and we want to go after that niche," Donovan said. "That space is underutilized, and with this project we can enhance the neighborhood. We want to be part of the Washington Avenue corridor."
A lender and general contractor have not yet been selected. Metropolitan's in-house architectural firm, Metro.Arch, is the project's architect. The building's design will meet LEED standards, according to Metropolitan.
The building will have 13,000 square feet of retail space, and several hundred parking spots will be built into the structure. A rooftop recreational area will include a pool, fitness center and dog run. Each of the condo units will feature floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies.
Metropolitan is teaming with local development group RileyWaldrop LLC in a joint venture on the Skyhouse project. Riley Waldrop consists of developer Ben Riley; his father, Philip Riley; and Brad Waldrop.
Riley Waldrop has been active in the loft-conversion market downtown in recent years, developing the 14-unit Barton Street Lofts at 2401 S. 12th St., and six of the Knickerbocker units at Washington Avenue and 13th Street, which it later resold. The investment group bought the Dragon Trading building at 1709 Locust St. for $1.25 million in 2005 and sold it four months later to New York real estate developers Cyrus and Darius Sakhai for $1.8 million.
Skyhouse is Metropolitan's first project in St. Louis; the company has several residential projects completed or under way in the Chicago area. Its founder and president is Paul Hardej. In addition to an in-house architectural team, Metropolitan has an in-house construction firm, Enterprise Construction, and property management team, Newland Realty.
A crowded market
According to a midyear 2006 study by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, 1,275 new rental units and 6,088 for-sale units had been added downtown since 1988. The partnership also says there are now 7,400 rental and for-sale units available downtown, a number expected to grow by 1,300 units in 2007.
There may be signs the residential market is softening, however. Baltimore-based Cordish Co. originally planned to build 250 condos in phase 1 of Ballpark Village, on the site of the old Busch Stadium. This month, in its bid to secure public subsidy for the $387 million project, the developer made the condos in the plan optional; the decision on whether to build them will be based on market demand.
Skyhouse is one of a handful of new-construction residential projects that have been proposed for downtown. The Lawrence Group plans to build a high-rise mixed-use building on a surface parking lot it owns adjacent to its $125 million Park Pacific redevelopment at 201 N. Tucker Blvd. Roberts Brothers Properties plans to build a $50 million, 25-story condominium tower on a parking lot it owns adjacent to its Roberts Mayfair Hotel at Eighth and St. Charles streets.
McGowan|Walsh principal Kevin McGowan, who has redeveloped warehouses into hundreds of lofts downtown in the past few years, said new-construction condos downtown will be successful because of their uniqueness. "We have hundreds of lofts being rehabbed but no new construction," he said. "That is why that project is going to be immensely successful."
According to a midyear 2006 study by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, 1,275 new rental units and 6,088 for-sale units had been added downtown since 1988. The partnership also says there are now 7,400 rental and for-sale units available downtown, a number expected to grow by 1,300 units in 2007.
Is this true? There have been a total of 7,358 units added downtown since 1988 and there are now 7,400 total units available? I hope I'm missing something - or else the market is f***ed.
Like this building a lot - very atractive and contemporary - it will jump start new towers along Washington Avenue - and it will also look great looking west down Washington Avenue.
The gap between Downtown and Midtown is almost closed. Thank Goodness!
Grover wrote:^ Oh yeah, that would make more sense, but that means there were a total of 42 rental/owner units downtown prior to 1988?
Would it really suprise you?
The numbers are never totally accurate, especially when you consider that there are units lost along with new ones (Colombus Square cleared some, the projects along tenth are defunct, and neighborhood gardens just came back on line, etc).
I've believed all along that development spurs development. I know in some (many) cases things get over build and the market stalls... But I just feel as more and more people move in and around dt, more services will be added and the bleek perception of dt begins to change. Just imagine this building completed along with BPV and all those 1000+ lofts coming online absorbed. Bring on the hustle and bustle.
The photo in the flash looking east is awesome. A new tower like this is probably worth more to St. Louis sybolically than in real terms. It's great to add density, but the message this tower (and the Park East) send is HUGE.
Wooo Hoooooo! All that softening market stuff was starting to make me think the DT development snowball was losing momentum. That's obviously not true!
