Business

The Mississippi River makes riverfront developments hard

Published

2 years ago

February 14, 2023

[ad_1]

Ideas for development along parts of the St. Louis riverfront have become more common in recent years.From the scores of proposals, two projects are now moving forward after receiving approvals from the St. Louis Port Authority and tax incentives from the city’s Board of Aldermen.Developers of Lighthouse Point plan to build a $325 million marina and entertainment district near the northernmost tip of St. Louis. The $1.2 billion Gateway South project would redevelop a legacy industrial area south of the Arch into a construction and design innovation district.
The surge of interest in development along the Mississippi riverfront is something Colin Wellenkamp first noticed picking up steam around 2005. He’s the executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative and said the 2,500-mile river has had many identities over the decades.“I’ve watched it take on different characteristics from a liability to something that you just don’t go near because it’s dangerous or polluted, to the renaissance that it is going through right now,” Wellenkamp said.There’s new enthusiasm for projects that promote the Mississippi’s natural assets and expand capacity for transportation, ecotourism and restoration, he said. But this renewed interest also comes at a time when the river itself is seeing massive fluctuations in its level on a regular basis, Wellenkamp said.“Now the events are stacking up very close together,” he said. “And it’s either feast or famine. It’s either massive flood or what we just went through this fall, a record drought.”

M2 Development Partners LLCDevelopers of Lighthouse Point plan to build a $325 million marina and entertainment district near the northernmost tip of St. Louis.

Hazards in the waterThe two proposals with approvals have varying degrees of exposure to the Mississippi River’s dynamics. The marina that’s proposed with Lighthouse Point means the project engages with more of the natural hazards of the river.St. Louis Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia said this is one of the reasons she doesn’t support the development.“You have to really understand how big water works; it’s not the same as going on a float trip on the Meramec or the Current River,” she said. “The lower it gets, obviously the more hazards are exposed, including the Chain of Rocks.”That’s a series of bedrock shelves in the river that’s so difficult to navigate, the Army Corps of Engineers built a multimillion-dollar canal just for tugs and barges to avoid the hazard, she said. Ingrassia speaks from experience, having guided paddling trips on that part of the Mississippi River.“If you don’t know that it’s there or aren’t familiar with the varying water levels, you can get yourself into a really dangerous situation,” she said.Ingrassia points to an episode in 2021, when a sailboat wound up stuck on the Chain of Rocks for weeks after its owner missed the bypass canal. She explained she was frustrated that the development proposal won approvals without much scrutiny of the potential public safety and environmental hazards.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioTrucks work at the site where the Lighthouse Point project — a marina, waterpark and entertainment district — would be constructed last week along the Mississippi River in north St. Louis County.

“What we were told at the board was, ‘This is just a formality in terms of the tax abatement piece, and the real regulation comes at the state and federal level,’” Ingrassia said. “Which I think is us circumventing our responsibilities to our constituents.”Tim Morris, managing principal of M2 Development Partners, the group behind Lighthouse Point, said he expects the hurdles from environmental regulators and the Army Corps of Engineers to be rigorous.“These are agencies that don’t care about our development, they care about the natural resources and the flow of the river and protecting the assets associated with that,” he said.Morris added the boat that got stuck on the Chain of Rocks was an isolated incident of a boater who was unfamiliar with this portion of the Mississippi River and navigating it at night. He added that the marina will have a comprehensive safety plan and that the harbormaster will provide new boaters a safety overview and other precautions.“There will be a sign strategically placed at the southern end of the Marina telling boaters to ‘Stop & Turn Around’ to avoid having any boats running aground,” he said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioA water intake tower on the Mississippi River last week near the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. A sailboat wound up stuck on the Chain of Rocks for weeks in 2021 after its owner missed the bypass canal.

Managing waterCritics of the marina and entertainment district also question the placement of the new development on land that has previously flooded.“It’s always been floodplain,” said Mike Clark, who founded Big Muddy Adventures, which guides canoe and other paddling trips on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. “They’re 1676386446 50 feet above what it used to be. That mass of land there was never there, it was all bottomland.”It means that when the river eventually floods again, there won’t be space for the excess water to spread into and instead will push further downstream to a spot that may have never flooded before, he said.Even though the site has been raised enough for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to say it’s not a floodplain, Clark said that’s no guarantee against future floods.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioMichael “Big Muddy Mike” Clark, 63, talks about paddling on Missouri’s rivers last week along the Mississippi River near Granite City.

Mark Repking, also of M2 Development Partners, disagrees and said they plan to outfit the site with streets and utilities this year, before construction of the marina, indoor waterpark and trampoline park begins in 2024.“It was a floodplain to some degree, but it was protected with an existing levee,” he said. “As the water over the years went up and down, it never flooded the site except for 1993, which was the historic flood level.”But to Wellenkamp, this misses the reality of modern riverfront development.“Now, whatever you build, whatever you outfit or change, it really needs to be engineered to flood,” he said. “Putting up a wall around it, putting up a levee around it is only going to make things more risky for you and make things more risky for your neighbors.”
Most of the hundreds of cities and towns that are a part of Wellenkamp’s organization have abandoned trying to engineer the river to meet their needs, he said.“That is very 20th century,” he said. “So many of my cities have seen new projects wash away or get stuck in the mud because the water is way out there in the channel because it’s a drought.”It’s pushing them to adjust development projects to the dynamics of the Mississippi River, which can cause devastating damage if water isn’t managed properly, Wellenkamp said.“Not only do you want that built environment to be able to be flooded and withstand that, but you want to build in natural slack around that asset,” he said. “Other greenspace nearby that can take on the water and relieve pressure from what you’re building.”He added that this approach is so desirable that banks are even offering cheaper loans on projects that preserve existing wetlands or other natural buffers around developments.Responsible developmentThe Gateway South development project is less connected to the riverfront, though developers would eventually like the innovation district to link to the river for commercial use, said Hank Weber, one of the project’s senior advisers. Weber, who was heavily involved in the technology-based Cortex Innovation District, explained that Gateway South is a similar venture but with construction and design.“The idea was that the design and construction industry has been operating very much the way it has operated for 50 years,” he said. “In fact, there’ve been no productivity gains.”The development is entering its first phase, which focuses on redeveloping some of the historic industrial area’s old buildings, particularly the Crunden-Martin building, Weber said. That construction will begin in mid-2024, he added.

The current footprint of the proposed “Gateway South” development along the southern portion of downtown St. Louis’ riverfront.

In later phases though, once the area is more populated with companies producing goods that can be shipped, the project may add an ability to ship on the river, Weber said. Resiliency will need to be core to those eventual plans, he said.“How do we use the river as a commercial asset as well as a recreational asset in ways that respects the river, respects climate change and respects the challenge which is that it floods,” Weber said. “Any responsible developer and the public agencies that approve development, we all recognize that resiliency has to be at the center of any riverfront development.”Eric Schmid covers economic development for St. Louis Public Radio.

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

Laclede’s Landing is moving from nightlife hub to neighborhood

Published

4 months ago

August 28, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Laclede’s Landing has cycled through many identities throughout the history of St. Louis. Now, some people involved with its redevelopment in recent years hope the landing’s next one will be as a residential neighborhood.The small district tucked directly north of the Gateway Arch National Park has quietly undergone a massive redevelopment with more than $75 million pouring into the rehabilitation of many of the historic buildings at the landing.“We are starting to feel that momentum, especially in the last really 60 days. Things have drastically changed around here,” said Ryan Koppy, broker and owner of Trading Post Properties and the director of commercial property for Advantes Group.Advantes alone shouldered the rehabilitation of six of the historic buildings, which now sport a mix of apartments and retail or office space, he said. Four of those buildings are completed, and of the 119 apartments available, about 90% are filled, Koppy said.“It just shows you what kind of demand we do have for the area,” he said. “We’re separated from downtown a little bit, and for the tenants, their local park where they’re walking their dogs, it’s a national park.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioInterior of the Peper Lofts at Laclede’s Landing on Aug. 16

Another 40 apartments are set to come online next year along with some retail space, Koppy said. He added he’s noticed a wide range of people who are considering and moving into the newly refinished apartments.“It’s very mixed, surprisingly,” Koppy said. “We have a lot of young professionals, maybe on their second job out of [university], we have some empty nesters too.”Part of the newfound momentum comes from a new market, the Cobblestone, and coffee shop, Brew Tulum, opening recently and bringing more foot traffic to the area, said Brandyn Jones, executive director of the Laclede Landing Neighborhood Association. She added that more apartments are set to come online within the next few months.“We have a great riverfront area here and so there are plans in the works to activate those spaces, bring people in,” she said.That could be more daytime events, like a farmers market, music festivals (one of which is happening this weekend) or just bringing in food trucks to Katherine Ward Burg Garden, Jones said. It’s a departure from the identity the district held a few decades ago as a hub for nightlife and entertainment.“That’s part of what connects so many people to Laclede’s Landing,” Jones said. “It’s important to tell the story of where we’re evolving. It won’t be what it was in the same exact way, but it will still be fun, and it can be fun early morning, midday or late night.”It’s a view shared by Koppy.“It’s grown up, it’s a bit mature,” he said. “We’re not going to have 3 a.m. bars here anymore because we have residents here.”Koppy added that Advantes is joined by other developers working to rehabilitate buildings in the district.“We all work in unison,” he said. “If I get a call and [a client is] asking for something and maybe the square foot doesn’t really match up with what I have available, but I know it matches up over there, they’re getting a very warm welcome and introduction.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioRyan Koppy looks out the window of Brew Tulum Specialty Coffee Experience on Aug. 16 at the Cobblestone on Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis.

This push toward making Laclede’s Landing a residential neighborhood also comes alongside broader conversations about the future of downtown St. Louis more generally as it looks to move away from a dependence on office space. While the city as a whole continues to lose population, downtown added about 1,700 people between 2010 and 2020, according to U.S. Census data.“It’s been wonderful timing to have all that going on, that stress that you’re not just in downtown to work has been critical to part of this rejuvenation and energy down here,” Jones said. “Sometimes people forget Laclede’s Landing is part of downtown, really the original downtown.”And success in the small district could spread beyond its small confines and potentially serve as a model for success, Koppy added.“My idea is, if we could get all the great things of St. Louis coming in through here, we can eventually spread that,” he said. “We understand we can’t change the whole world, but we’ll just make the effort to try and change the world around us.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

St. Louis barbecue festival Q in the Lou canceled

Published

4 months ago

August 27, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The largest barbecue competition and tasting festival in St. Louis, Q in the Lou, has been canceled. The event was planned for Sept. 6-8, but organizers decided to cancel it due to poor ticket sales and insufficient corporate sponsorship.The traveling festival had low attendance in Denver last week, said Sean Hadley, a festival organizer.“We made the tough decision to cancel Q in the Lou,” said Hadley. “We’re seeing a lack of support … it’s just not there.”The traveling event first came to St. Louis in 2015 and drew hundreds of people to downtown St. Louis for barbecue, live music and a “major party.”“It shut down out of the blue … I’ve gone every year,” said Scott Thomas, local chef and food blogger. “It’s brilliant. You could take a tour of some really amazing barbecue restaurants and competition barbecue guys all in one place.”In a late July news conference, city officials touted Q in the Lou as a significant tourism draw and a boost for downtown revitalization.“Bringing a signature national festival back to downtown St. Louis … is making us stronger,” Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall said then.Less than a month later, ticket holders from every festival stop learned they’d be refunded. On Monday, organizers privatized the Q in the Lou website and deleted its social media accounts.Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office, said city officials are disappointed the festival won’t be back this year.“St. Louis knows how to throw a festival … bringing people together to celebrate our culture is one of the things we do best as a city,” Kerrigan said in a statement. “Should Q in the Lou try to come back next year or any year after that, they’ll have the support of the Mayor Jones administration.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

Alton’s Jacoby Arts Center likely to relocate permanently

Published

4 months ago

August 27, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The Jacoby Arts Center, a staple of Alton for many in the Metro East community, will likely permanently move out of its downtown building at the end of September.Its departure and relocation from the historic building that the arts center has called home for the past 20 years has created a tense situation for not only the arts center’s supporters but also the local development company working to revitalize Alton’s downtown that owns the building.“It’s an unfortunate situation,” said Chad Brigham, the chief legal and administrative officer with AltonWorks, the real estate company owned by another prominent local attorney working to develop the town. “I wish there wasn’t misunderstanding and disappointment in the community. It’s difficult sometimes to clarify that.”When news of the likely departure spread in June via a letter from the Jacoby Arts Center to its supporters, an outcry on social media quickly followed. Some assumed it would be the end of the arts center.“There’s a lot of feelings right now that I think are more about the building itself than there are about the Jacoby Arts Center,” said Valerie Hoven, vice president and treasurer of the nonprofit arts center’s board.For supporters of the Jacoby, moving from the building and likely never returning will be a sad affair. Exactly what’s next for the arts center remains unclear. However, Jacoby board members believe this will not be the end of the organization. It will likely look different though.

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioThe Jacoby Arts Center earlier this month in downtown Alton

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioThe Alton-based Jacoby Arts Center features more than 75 St. Louis-area artists and their work.

The history of the buildingFirst dubbed the Madison County Arts Council, the nonprofit arts center renamed itself after the Jacoby family gave it the current building in 2004. AltonWorks founder John Simmons purchased the Jacoby Building in September 2018, according to property records from the county.Managing the large building, at 627 E. Broadway, became too expensive for the Jacoby Arts Center. In 2018, the organization approached Simmons to purchase it, said Dennis Scarborough, a past president of the board and a downtown business owner.“Of course, it sounded really, really good,” Scarborough said of Simmons’ purchase. “He took over the insurance, property taxes, all those kinds of things that were really, really getting into our budget, and he rented it to us at a fair price.”The two parties entered into a lease agreement initially for five years. Since then, Simmons has spent more than $1 million in upkeep, taxes, insurance and more on the building. The lease has been extended twice until the end of September this year.Over the six years, Jacoby paid $1,500 per month, which covered a portion of the utilities.“It’s been wonderfully generous of AltonWorks,” Hoven said.Because the building is aging and needs repairs, Brigham with AltonWorks and those connected to the arts center have long known the Jacoby Arts Center would need to relocate — at least temporarily.

Renovations on the Jacoby building will begin this fall. They’ll include modernizing the aging building, repairing the old elevator and putting in apartments on the second and third floors.

News of the likely departure and controversyRenovations will begin this fall. They’ll include modernizing the aging building, repairing the old elevator and putting in apartments on the second and third floors.In May, it became clear that a preliminary proposal for the arts center to return to the building after renovations finished in 2026 would not work for them, Hoven said.She estimates the first floor and basement of the Jacoby Arts Building span roughly 20,000 square feet.

Chad Brigham is a business and legal adviser for AltonWorks.

AltonWorks’ initial idea floated to the arts center would only provide 2,553 square feet, according to both Hoven and Brigham. While the board calculated the price for the new space to be at least triple the current payment, Brigham said there was never a specific price discussed.“No discussion in terms of actual rent price,” he said.AltonWorks didn’t make a specific rent offer because the organization doesn’t even know itself, Brigham said.In addition to cash from John Simmons, there will be loans, tax increment financing and state tax credits to cover the $20 million in building renovations. The entities financing the cost of renovations will also help determine the rent when the construction is complete, Brigham said.Regardless, the price required to return will be too much for the arts center to pay, Hoven said. Also, the organization would like to maintain the many programs it offers to the community — a rentable event space, a dark room and a clay studio, for example — in the future.“For us to really meet the needs of the community and be sustainable, we need a space where we can offer some of those programs — the artists’ shop, and other spaces that offer some kind of income as well — so that we can continue to give money back to the community,” she said.AltonWorks offered at least two other locations as possible alternatives from their vast stock of buildings along Broadway to house the arts center during the roughly 18 months of construction. Those alternatives came with similar deals requiring the Jacoby to cover only utilities, Brigham said.“We did put in a great deal of work behind the scenes in trying to find an interim solution,” Brigham said. “We wanted to find a place for them to go, where it was easy for them to continue programming, whether it’s 100% of it or some portion of it, that would work for them.”Initially, the arts center hoped to keep the basement during the renovations, Hoven said. When it became clear the preliminary offer to return was for much less space than the arts center anticipated, the letter to the community was sent.“The letter that came out was merely showing our surprise,” Hoven said. “Don’t misinterpret it as panic. Don’t misinterpret it as desperation.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioA smorgasbord of radios are displayed at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton.

The commentary on social media was passionate. Some critics of AltonWorks said the organization has good intentions but hasn’t executed those plans. Others said Jacoby hasn’t planned well enough for the future.For Brigham and the AltonWorks team, some of the criticism has been disappointing.“I thought that there were some decent solutions. Were they perfect? No, but they were very, I thought, very good solutions,” he said. “And the fact that it has come to the point that it is right now is a bit hurtful.”AltonWorks remains committed to the arts, Brigham said. John Simmons remains one the largest donors of the Jacoby Arts Center, Hoven and Brigham said.“I don’t think there’s ever been a question of our support of that organization — of our affinity for that organization,” Brigham said. “While some of the events were unfortunate, some of them were encouraging. The entire community rallied around the Jacoby Arts Center. That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to have a love for the arts like that in a downtown community.”Sara McGibany, the executive director of Alton Main Street, an organization aimed at preserving the town, said AltonWorks should be commended for its vision. In many ways, her organization and AltonWorks share a vision for a thriving downtown.Even though AltonWorks hosts public meetings, McGibany believes the current situation lacks true community engagement.“We really think that if AltonWorks can get past some of the communication hurdles — and harness the community’s passion and shift to more of a bottom-up decision-making process that centers on community input — then we can turn around the growing sentiment of distrust that’s happening now,” McGibany said.Scarborough, the past board president and downtown business owner, echoed the praise for Simmons and his support of the Jacoby Arts Center. With the Jacoby likely moving, the future looks bleak, though.“It’s a community arts center that does a lot of good work,” Scarborough said. “The community is going to suffer, and they’re going to be missed by the community if they’re not there.”

Eric Lee

St. Louis Public RadioShalanda Young, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, talks to Illinois U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, during a tour of a construction project by AltonWorks last April in Alton. AltonWorks, who is building the LoveJoy Apartment Complex is receiving over $1 million in federal funding.

What does the future hold?AltonWorks will continue forging ahead with its ambitious plans to revitalize Alton. The organization hopes to conclude construction on the Wedge Innovation Center, which will have a restaurant, retail and co-working space, this fall. Lucas Row, a mix of apartments and retail space, is scheduled to be completed next spring.The remainder of the arts and innovation district, currently named after the Jacoby, will also move forward.“I believe in two years it’s going to be a much different place,” Brigham said of Alton. “It’s going to be thriving. It’s going to be new businesses, new tenants — and it’s going to be a nice proof of concept for what you can do in a small community like that.”The Jacoby board recently formed a strategic planning committee. Its task: figuring out what’s next for the arts center. The committee will reevaluate what space the Jacoby needs, what programs it wants to offer to the community and how they want to make that a reality.Keeping the arts center is essential for board members like Hoven. In her experience, it’s been a place where local aspiring artists get their start.“Art is one of the only ways to show your true authentic self,” Hoven said. “And there’s more people than I realized who do not get that opportunity every day.”The Jacoby will shut its doors to pack over the next month. Hoven said she’s optimistic the board will have concrete plans by the end of September when their lease officially ends.“Alton is such a fabulous and supportive community,” she said. “We still have lots of great options, so that the Jacoby Arts Center will continue to thrive in Alton and beyond.”

[ad_2]

Source link