St. Louis MLB All-Star logo

Since Ballpark Village is finally underway (note the sarcasm), I guess its time to think about the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Or at least, that’s what Major League baseball seems to think. The Post Dispatch just revealed the logo for next year’s big game. Its kind of sad to think that we’ll be happy if the Village has even gotten off the ground by then. At one point, the first phase was supposed to be done by the game. Just trying to keep things in scale.

Ballpark Village site work begins

The Post Dispatch is reporting that the Cardinals will begin site work on the future site of Ballpark Village on Tuesday, August 5th. I was listening to the ballgame on the radio the other day and Mike Shannon kept talking about a big announcement coming this Tuesday. I was hoping for something a little more than this, but I guess its better than the status quo. Check out the article for yourself: Work could begin soon on Ballpark Village site

Mayor Slay on Downtown

If you read the St. Louis Post Dispatch, you likely saw the two disturbing stories in the newspaper this weekend about some problems with Downtown developments. The respective stories included an article about Pyramid Development bailing out of the Mercantile Exchange project and a general Downtown article, which implied that the SkyHouse project on Washington Avenue was dead. Read more

Note on Chouteau’s Landing

I went to my first Cardinals game of 2008 last night. It was a little chilly for baseball, but it was great to see the team pull out a victory and move to 10-4 (who’s laughing now ESPN?). Though the sports fan in me kept most of my attention on the game, I couldn’t help but occasionally take my eyes off the action to look at the crater known as “Pujol’s Pond” beyond center field. Read more

A few words on Ballpark Village

Since I was in the middle of transferring my blog last week when the big story broke that Centene was backing out of the Ballpark Village project in Downtown St. Louis, I figured I’d post a few thoughts on the situation. Everyone seems to have their own spin on what this means for the project, but it is pretty clear that it is going to have a pretty significant affect on the overall development. Read more

More on the fate of Ballpark Village

Just a quick follow up on yesterday’s post about Centene potentially bailing out on the Ballpark Village deal. The St. Louis Post Dispatch posted a similar article in today’s paper. Looks like the situation is serious. Click here to check out the full article.

Ballpark Village - Centene project on the rocks

In the realm of über development projects in St. Louis, the Ballpark Village project next to Busch Stadium is probably the most prominent. The St. Louis Cardinals are required to develop the land and have been working with developer, Cordish, for what’s seemingly been an eternity. Last September, Clayton-based health care company Centene Corporation announced that they would be relocating their headquarters to the Village site. The pic to the right is the rumored design proposal. Development nerds, like myself, city-wide rejoiced.

Six months later, the picture isn’t looking as rosie. What was once a “sure thing” could be in danger. Most of this is only rumor at this point, but KMOX reported on the situation this morning and it doesn’t sound that great. Apparently Centene is bumping heads with Cordish on various aspects of the project. KMOX is claiming that the fate of the project might be determine in the next few weeks. You can listen to the report yourself here.

This report along with Mayor Slay’s blog entry on the matter in January, lends some credence to the belief that Cordish is rubbing everyone the wrong way. Lets just hope they can work something out. Not only are the residential and commercial components of this project a big deal, but we could really use an influx of new jobs Downtown. I was really hoping Centene’s move Downtown was a sign of things to come. Here’s to hoping.

To keep up on all the rumors and gossip, check out this thread on Urban St. Louis.

Mississippi River Bridge a done deal

For better or worse, it looks like that Mississippi River Bridge plan I posted on the other day is a done deal. Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich signed off on the deal this morning. I think this bridge is important for the future of our region, but this four-lane design is going to come back on us in the end. But seeing as how I am not the governor of either state and haven absolutely no influence over either one of them, I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with what we’re going to get. Maybe we can convince them to put a lid over Memorial Drive while their at it.

For more details on the signed deal check out this St. Louis Post Dispatch article.

Real Mississippi River Bridge deal coming this week?

The St. Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that Illinois and Missouri transportation officials have come to an agreement on the Mississippi River Bridge proposal. This time, unlike last week, I’m not joking. The paper says something official will be coming later this week. Word has it that the project will not utilize tolls. Unfortunately, it sounds like they are going to scale back the project to only 4 lanes instead of the originally intended 8.

I understand the need to watch the budget and reluctance to install tolls on the bridge, but I have to wonder if there wasn’t a way we could have used the original concept? Illinois officials have been bending over backwards to make this deal happen, but Missouri’s Transportation Director (or Dictator if you prefer) Pete Rahn has been fighting tooth and nail against it. Now we’re going to (probably) build a bridge that’s going to need to be updated in 10 years. What foresight.

I really don’t get why Missouri has been fighting so hard against the Illinois side of the metro area. The resurgence of East St. Louis and other near-east municipalities would be a major boon to the area. I have always believed that both sides of the river are just one side of the same coin. Much like Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Those learned to work more in tune with one another and their metro area is thriving because of it. Unfortunately our state officials seem to have failed to learn their lesson. One can only hope that Illinois has vision.

It will be interesting to see have this pans out this week. Check out the Post article yourself for more details.

New Mississippi River Bridge design unveiled

Just when you think St. Louis lacks imagination, they come up with a really amazing plan like this. Check out this new Mississippi River bridge proposal to link Missouri and Illinois at St. Louis. The arch design would complement our “Gateway to the West” arch quite well. Projections only have this puppy costing an amazingly $817 million. With no tolls.

Oh wait. Sorry. I thought the plans said St. Louis. They really say Dubai. As in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I guess we will have to continue bickering over how we are going to finance our $910 million, far less attractive, bridge proposal for now. Its a shame that building this bridge here would cost $5 billion and take 20 years to contract. Sigh.

For more info on the Mississippi River Bridge project check out their website. You can find more on the Dubai Bridge at Gizmodo.

*NOTE - It should be noted that the labor force in UAE is not very well compensated. So its not quite a 1 to 1 comparison here.

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