Crown Square (14th St. Mall) Open House

From the fine folks at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group:

You are cordially invited!

On December 23^rd from 3-6pm, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group will hold a holiday open house and sneak peak of the Crown Square redevelopment in the former Parks Drug building at 2720 N 14^th Street at St. Louis Avenue. Light refreshments will be provided.

If you come while it’s still light outside, we’ll be offering hard-hat tours of the development, including our new office space, which is currently under construction. Everyone is invited and welcome to join us in celebrating an incredibly eventful and successful year. Feel free to bring along any others who might be interested in celebrating with us or seeing the progress.

This will be a great opportunity to check out the incredible progress on the buildings that are part of this project. Come over to the neighborhood and check it out if you have a bit of time. Check out the new Restoration Group website as well. It is completely redesigned and utilizes a content management system for easy updating by staff. The New Old North Blog is now integrated into the website as well.

If you can't make the open house, you can check out some of my pics from December 11.

Crown Square and Mullanphy Update

Yes, I am alive. I've been too busy to write here. If you haven't noticed, my blogging generally happens on the New Old North blog. which is the purpose of this post. If you haven't been paying attention to that blog, a lot is going on right now. The concrete block wall on the south end of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home is finally rising. The cold weather and abundant precipitation has really slowed the work down, but progress is being made. The first floor is now closed in. Find out more about the building and how you can help at SaveMullanphy.org.

The other major project in Old North is the complete reconstruction of the 14th St. Mall into Crown Square. Work is moving quickly these days, with buildings in all stages of construction. Some units will be ready for occupancy at the end of February. I have many blog posts on the New Old North Blog with updates on the progress, including one from tonight. There are also many picture on the Crown Square Flickr Page. If you are interested in being involved in generating ideas for the public space of the project, which includes 14th St., come to the Charrette on Saturday morning. More info can be found here. The more people, the better.

I may return to writing here this year. We'll see how much work I have to do this semester, which includes looking for a job with a developer or planning firm. If you happen to know of a job opportunity or are looking for an employee that is one semester into a master's degree in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development and has a years worth of intern experience at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, feel free to send me an email at mattnstl at gmail dot com. I also come with about 10 years worth of experience following development in St. Louis.

14th St. Mall Construction Begins

Construction on the 14th St Mall in Old North St. Louis has officially begun. Financing for the residential portion closed on Friday, and E.M. Harris wasted no time getting started. Two buildings are now being gutted, with more to start very soon. The commercial component will close within the next few weeks, allowing full scale construction to start. Check out pics of the first day of work from my post over at the New Old North Blog.

Land Assmbly Tax Credit

I'm taking one from the PubDef book. I'll be reporting from Jefferson City tomorrow, where a special session hearing will be held on HB 1. The bill contains the controversial Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit, created solely for Paul McKee's "Blairmont." I'll have an update tomorrow. Hopefully some changes will be made to the bill to allow many more developers to qualify, such as removing the size requirement for starters.

Mullanphy Update

Your help is still needed in the effort to stabilize the historic Mullanphy Emigrant Home. Click here to find out more. Click on the image for a larger version.

At least Gieco Will Insure Me

I've been trying to think of a response to the STL Business Journals "article" about CAVEmen- Citizens Against Virtually Everything. I am supposedly one of these. I just don't know how to respond to the ridiculousness of this claim. I could never be considered as against development. I'm one of the biggest cheer leaders of development you will find. The problem developers have with me and others is that I have the balls to ask for appropriate urban development, not just the least common denominator.

If a closer look is taken, you can see that us anti-development people will actually take the time to rally for a good development. When Patti Tepper and her little group know as "Citizens for Responsible Development" threatened the Lindell Condos project, a group of us were very vocal in showing support. We had our own thoughts and criticisms of the design, but we were fully in support of the general idea presented.

In the cases used in the article to show an anti-development bias, we were and are all for development, just not in the way it has been proposed. We were all for the OPO being renovated, but we wanted to historic gem next door known as the Century Building to be renovated as condos and parking, as well as street level retail. This would have kept the historic integrity of the district as well as not blatantly going against official plans for the district to help out developer buddies. Even more important, there were developers willing to take this on, but there proposals were squashed by DESCO/DFC and politicians that are in their pockets. As far as the Bohemian Hill plans, I am perfectly fine with a retail development, it just needs to be done in a much more urban fashion. Phase II should be done as an infill and renovation project, not as clear cutting of new and renovated homes. When it comes to the north side and Paul McKee, I'm not against anything but letting buildings rot and potential for suburban styled development. I'm all for proper urban development. Just look to Old North to see how it should be done.

I think what pisses me off the most is that the Biz Journal is blatantly supporting developer buddies instead of taking a constructive look at what both sides wants. I think a dialogue would be much more useful to developers and urbanists than petty potshots. I'm perfectly willing to share what I would look for in a proper urban development as well as hear the developers view, but the developer needs to be willing to listen as well, not just view us as obstructionists in the way of their gifts to us poor urban folk that don't know any better.

For now I will proudly wear the badge of CAVEman- Citizens Against Vulgar Environments. Thanks to Steve Patterson for recoining the acronym.

Mississippi Bluff's Resurected?

The latest word on the long delayed and poorly planned Mississippi Bluff's project along Broadway is that construction will start in April. Michael Curran apparently told a neighbor of the site across Broadway that construction would indeed finally start this spring, and that none of the delays were his fault. His biggest excuse seemed to be bad advice from an engineer that told him he would need a lot of steel in the ground. My info is from a second hand, but reliable source, so the details are a little fuzzy, but that's the story at the moment.