McGowan|Walsh Opens New Sales Center

McGowan|Walsh Historic Renovators today opened their new “Sales & Presentation Center” to more than 300 REALTORS®. We were first treated to a “nuts & bolts” seminar on loft selling and lunch down the street at Windows on Washington.

Sadly, many in my profession don’t get the renaissance in urban living. Today’s presentation did a great job of explaining what it is all about. Kevin McGowan asked his wife Erin to talk about a typical day for them. The McGowan’s have a 3-year old as well as twins that are less than a year old. Erin talked about a mom’s group where her son (age 3) is the oldest. The point, families do live downtown.

McGowan|Walsh will be doing something new with all their upcoming projects: Opening sales to those customers represented by buyer’s agents for a full two weeks prior to just taking contracts from those not represented. So, if you are looking to place a contract on one of their projects get with an agent (such as myself) so you can pick the unit you want and get pre-construction pricing.

M|W will be giving each purchaser of a new loft a new scooter as well (updated 5/30/06 – Packard & Motor Lofts only at this point). Kevin McGowan mentioned he has had recent talks with city officials about scooter parking as he wants to make sure his customers have a place to park their new scooters when visiting local businesses and friends. I addressed this issue in a post entitled St. Louis Region Needs to Address Scooter & Motorcycle Parking on April 6, 2006.

Kevin McGowan & partner Nat Walsh are also mixing up the selections scene a bit. Light fixtures, bathroom fittings and kitchen casework is being sourced from Blue Boat Designs located at 1607 Washington Ave. Their products are not the run of the mill loft finishes we’ve seen for the last 5 years.

Look for the West Downtown area to really take off in the next 3-5 years as these buildings become occupied and as new construction begins. Kevin McGowan and I discussed their plans for the remaining Cupple’s buildings near the new Busch Stadium being marketed as the Ballpark Lofts. He indicated they’ve had an amazing amount of interest from office interests as well as national retailers. Looks like at least one of the buildings may go entirely office with street-level retail.

A few additional photos are available on Flickr.

– Steve

Urban Review Takes a Day Off…sorta

I took the day off today and attended my first game in the new Busch Stadium. I’ve already done an extensive review of the ballpark and how it relates to the city (prior post) so here I just want to share a few thoughts now that I’ve had a chance to attend a game.

I like it.

I think they’ve done a great job overall. The place has a nice open feel to it and the view to downtown from the stands is spectacular. From other parts of the stadium you get wonderful city views. I think people in the stadium will have a greater connection to the city beyond the stadium walls. It will be interesting to see the relationship between the stadium and ballpark village as it is being constructed and once complete.

Since this is bike to work week I thought it best I leave my car & scooter at home. I picked my Cannondale hybrid bike (I have 5 bikes) as it is a good commuter bike. Not wanting to arrive completely worn out I biked a mile over to a bus stop along the #40 Broadway route. I got off at Soulard Market and biked another mile to the stadium. Following the game, I biked the full 4.6 miles home.

Celebrity sightings included promoter Don King and a boxer I did not recognize. I managed to find a couple of food places that had a surprisingly good garden burger which was reasonable at $4. The beverage prices were quite high so after I finished my first $4.50 bottle of water I filled it up at the drinking fountains.

I took quite a few pictures, many of our streets and buildings around the stadium. See all of them on Flickr.

Oh yeah, we won the game!

– Steve

Urban Alternatives For South Grand

One of the common arguments used by those trying to push a bad plan through the system is to ask, as Ald. Gregali did, “Has anyone come up with a better plan?” This statement is so infuriating as it implies if private citizens don’t go out and design alternatives they should not have a say in their immediate surroundings.

Myself and others have repeatedly said the senior housing should go on the old Sears site and the McDonald’s should rebuild on their current site. But talk is talk and as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, I’ve got the next best thing — drawings.

Let’s look at one at a time…

Former Sears Site @ Grand & Winnebego:

Click here to view PDF of alternate Senior Housing & Street-Level Retail

3-Story building includes 56 apartments and 11,000sf of retail/restaurant space.

Has 60 parking spaces to be shared with the housing and retail. I’m told that senior housing projects often have a less than 1:1 parking ratio.

A slight revision is being prepared that would have the parking accessed from the alley which would eliminate the curb cuts on Winnebego and therefore keeping the on-street parking intact.

This site is actually larger than the current McDonald’s site and we were only able to get in 56 units (vs 87). As we’ve not seen a site plan for the proposed senior housing at the current McDonald’s I can only speculate. One would be they were proposing considerably smaller units and/or they were expanding the site to the West.

The former Sears store that was razed in the late 90’s was three stories in height so it is fitting that we put back a 3-story structure so the street has the massing it once enjoyed.

In case you forgot, here is McDonald’s proposal for this site.

Current McDonald’s @ Grand & Chippewa:

Click here to view PDF of alternate McDonald’s at current location.

Grand is narrowed by 10ft, closer to its original width. I’d hear this was planned for the senior housing project as everyone considers Grand to be excessively wide at this point. I’d even go along with the city helping with the infrastructure costs to narrow the street back to the way it was before the wide right turn lane was added.

Current standard McDonald’s prototype is placed at corner of Grand & Chippewa and room is provided for additional street-level retail facing Grand. By using McDonald’s standard model we’ve retained their internal layout and service windows so as not to disrupt their efficient work flow.

On-street parking is assumed along Grand. A section of curb may need to “bulb” out to provide a sufficient bus stop in this area. Ditto for Chippewa.

A retaining wall would be required along the West edge of the property to make up for a roughly 8-10ft drop in elevation. The retaining wall need not be this high as the parking lot could have a slope to the West. Required ADA parking is provided on the flat section near Grand.

The current McDonald’s has a single curb cut along each Grand & Chippewa as does this proposed concept.

These alternative plans for the two sites in question provide the housing, retail and McDonald’s in a much more urban fashion that I believe everyone could accept. The urban form being present on both sides of the street can serve as a basis for a new urban zoning overlay for the entire blighted area (1 mile from Utah to Meramec, 61 acres) that would help guide future development.

– Steve

Recall Florida: The Movie

The movie? Yes, the movie:

Janet Reno and the Election Fiasco of 2002 A cautionary tale about the erosion of the right to vote RECALL FLORIDA starts out as a road movie, following former Attorney General Janet Reno as she takes to the wheel of her red pick-up truck and cruises the backroads and byways of Florida in her 2002 bid for Governor. As Primary Day draws near, and the state Democratic party strenuously opposes her candidacy, the film turns into a riveting story on a fundamental right in crisis – the right to vote and have that vote counted.

RECALL FLORIDA takes the audience behind the scenes, into the nerve center of a grassroots political campaign, to provide a fascinating inside look at – and raise very serious questions about – the election process itself. RECALL FLORIDA exposes our flawed electoral system, from the use and misuse of the new voting technology, to the debate over soft money, to diminishing voter participation.

Sounds like a good film. Click here for ordering info.

– Steve

Forest Park/BJC Lease Advisory Committee

The 1pm special committee meeting on the Forest Park/BJC deal started a bit late and in a different conference room than was posted (230 vs. 234). It appears that banker and former head of Downtown Now! Thomas Reeves has been asked by the mayor to join the committee.

Gary Best, Director of Parks for the City, outlined how we got to this point. One of the things I found interesting was in discussing the two appraisals — one obtained by BJC and one obtained by the Comptroller’s office. He acknowledged it was no surprise that BJC’s appraisal was less. So how did they arrive at the final price? They “split the difference” between the two.

WTF?

Sorry, but when the city has an appraisal we don’t split the difference. The city’s appraisal is also from late 2004 and is now considered by many, including myself, to be potentially low.

Ald. Bosley Sr. brought up some interesting points. First, he said he was certain that BJC already had some idea what they intended to do with the land. He wanted to know what that plan is.

Bosley Sr. also said the Treasurer’s office is concerned about the parking meters along the East edge of the current park space. This parking area was once part of the old Kingshighway (a 130ft right of way per Gary Bess). Bosley was suspicious that BJC would return to the city in the future to ask for much that 130ft right of way, leaving just enough for Euclid Ave. He is right, they will certainly come back and ask for that land because they are not going to construct new buildings and leave that as-is.

The committee went into a closed session to discuss hiring an appraiser. I have to wonder how much the Comptroller’s Office spent on the first appraisal and how much we’ll spend on a new appraisal.

Lots of figures are being thrown around. One of which was mentioned again by Park Director Gary Bess: $4.5 million per year to maintain Forest Park. That is a current figure. But what will the figure be over the next 90 years? What guarantee’s do we have that Forest Park Forever will be able to sustain a 90-year match of BJC’s lease payment. Will this maintenance be minimal cutting grass type maintenance or will it be sufficient to cover all the capital improvements at their current level.

I’m afraid we are creating a situation for many generations to come where the park’s basic maintenance is not longer covered much less keep up all the new structures, bridges and water features. This may be an issue as little as 20-30 years from now.

– Steve