St. Louis’ “Ballpark Village”… nothing but delays
Sitting smack dab in the middle of downtown St. Louis is a gigundous hole in the ground. Right where the old Busch Stadium used to stand.
When the new Busch Stadium opened its doors in 2006 right next door, the old stadium was torn down and plans were trumped for a new “Ballpark Village”, a $700 million mixed-used retail, entertainment and residential district to be developed in partnership by the Cordish Company of Baltimore and the St. Louis Cardinals. The development is slated to cover six city blocks and directly connect to the new Busch Stadium, and will feature 360,000 square feet of retail/entertainment, 1,200 residential units situated in three towers, and 300,000 square feet of office space.
Well here it is almost two years later, and real work has yet to begin. And according to this article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the prospect of having a substantial part of this neighborhood open and ready in time for the 2009 All Star Game is looking very bleak.
I love this quote from the piece:
Complicating matters is that the city has approved two development agreements — with different specifications and time lines. The first, drawn in 2002, is binding on the Cardinals. The second, approved by the city Board of Aldermen in February 2007, is binding on the Cardinals-Cordish partnership. That agreement, however, is not in effect because it hasn’t been signed by the parties.
Is it me, or does this sound just like the Bass Pro nonsense coming out of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation?
What is missing from the St. Louis equation is their version of a piece of crap like Tim Tielman to start throwing around lawsuits. Come to think of it, couldn’t we call that Bowling Museum which is the last remaining building standing on the old Busch site, “sacrosanct”?
St. Louis leaders and officials from the Cardinals are putting the best spin on this as they can, saying the MLB All Star Game, set for July 7, 2009 at Busch Stadium, will go on and viewers around the world will see construction cranes in the air and how all is well in St. Louis. That is, of course, assuming they actually get this thing off the ground.
Meanwhile… back outside HSBC Arena… I see they’ve fenced off the Donovan Building so work can begin on demolition, and things are at least stirring around the Aud. For now I’ll take some solace in knowing that this shit, the lack of progress, the inertia, the months of inaction that stretches into years and years, doesn’t only happen in Buffalo.
baseball » St. Louis’ “Ballpark Village”… nothing but delays Says:January 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
[…] Andrew Kulyk wrote a fantastic post today on “St. Louisâ
Keller Says:January 27th, 2008 at 10:17 am
As a Buffalonian perpetually teetering on the edge of a St. Louis move—I feel strong about this topic. My in-laws (residents of the Lou) point out 3 key reasons to move to MO:
1-The Blues have the same colors as the Sabres
2-Major League Baseball and football
3-downtown is actually rebuilding.
That piece of vacant land is indeed a bit of an eyesore. Nestled between the Hilton and the new-Busch, this is one PRIME piece of land. I can imagine the battles are a BIT more intense relative to Buffalo’s situation. There is no rush—it could be a parking lot and party zone for the All-Start game—no big deal. Other areas of St. Louis’ downtown are experiencing a rebuild. Rebuilding is already occuring north of the (downtown) football stadium, north and west of the (downtown) Blues arena and near the Landing (downtown casinos and a Chippewa like strip). Developers and city leaders KNOW this area will be succesful—heck, a hot dog vendor on the edge of this area probably does more business than Cobblestone in a year. Canalside, even with a perfect plan, is not a sure thing—in St. Louis–this is a sure thing.
The failure of Buffalo’s downtown development is due to a lack of quality leaders in the area and an poor, aging, population—city priorities involving Canalside developmet will ALWAYS take a back seat to basic infrastructure and social programs. Buffalo has barely any new residential or commercial redeveoplment to speak of during the past 15 years (Chippewa and a few lofts—what else?). We can slowly make what we have BETTER, but Buffalo is and always will be a poor city without hope of major development during our lifetimes. It’s cool to dream, but until we can shovel out of our Medicaid responsibilities and grow private business opportunities—it ain’t gonna happen.
St. Louis should take their time with their decison. They have that luxury. In Buffalo—time ran out during 1978-1991—we missed the boat and not even an Arc(h) could return the flood of talent and population that left for warmer, less taxed pastures.
wcperspective Says:January 30th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
One word: “Cordish.” Enough said.
Tom Naeger Says:September 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I am a Buffalonian with deep Saint Louis roots. My Parents were born and raised there and I still have vast amounts of family in the area. I am a big Cardinals fan, and travel to Saint Louis once a year to catch 3 to 5 games.
We better not take shots at Saint Louis, because we will be embarrassed quickly. Simple to say, they get stuff down. Just go down to Union Station and see how an old landmark has been turned into something very nice that makes an economic impact. When Saint Louis hosted the 2007 Frozen Four I took a few Buffalo Friends to the event. They say Union station and everyone was thinking, “Why can’t Buffalo do something like this?”
I am sure Ballpark Village will get built. There way to much money there to pass up. Baseball in Saint Louis has the same passion of the Sabres and Bills combined. That City is all about Baseball. They sell 40,000 tickets all most every night. The project will get done. As far the water development project…maybe….