ST. LOUIS — Another developer is going after Chouteau’s Landing.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based Good Developments Group says it’s planning a $1.2 billion push to remake the old riverfront industrial area with high-rise residential towers, an entertainment district and an advanced manufacturing center producing construction materials for projects across the country.
The developer says their plans would redevelop about 50 acres of this 80 acre site.
“We’re looking at a complete riverfront community here south of the Arch,†said Doug Rasmussen, a consultant for the developer. He and others told city economic development officials Thursday it’ll take until the end of the decade to get it all up and running.
And it may never happen. Developers have tried before to turn around the jumble of empty lots and boarded-up brick warehouses here and failed spectacularly. But if this effort succeeds, it would create hundreds of new jobs, beef up the city tax base and give people another reason to visit and live downtown.
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“It would be big,†said Matt O’Leary, a downtown developer and active resident. “We need anchors. We need things that are exciting and interesting.â€
Ed Lammering, a driver with American Queen Carriage Company, drives Duke down Second Street to the riverfront to give rides, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. The carriage company, seen at rear right, is in the area area, called Chouteau's Landing, that is being eyed for a $1.2 billion plan to remake the old riverfront industrial area.
This digital rendering depicts part of a $1.2 billion redevelopment planned for the riverfront south of the Gateway Arch.
The city’s port authority board voted Thursday to begin discussions on potential public contributions to the project.
Officials and developers have been trying to figure out what to do with the neglected patch of industrial and underused buildings south of the Poplar Street Bridge for decades.
The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects was workshopping plans get more people living in the area in the 1980s.
In 2008, real estate attorney Stephen Murphy was talking up plans for a three-phase, $300 million overhaul anchored by an arts center in the old Powell Square building housing galleries, studios and classrooms.
But five years later, the project had stalled, and the city ended up demolishing the Powell Square building, saying the owner didn’t care “a lick†about downtown. Other buildings in the area found a similar fate; one met the wrecking ball by mistake due to a city employee’s data entry error.
The latest attempt comes courtesy of a firm run by Greg Gleicher, a Washington University graduate who worked at a big development firm in New York before setting out on his own last year.
His firm’s representatives said the group already owns or controls 50 of 80 acres in the potential development area.
This digital rendering depicts part of a $1.2 billion redevelopment planned for the riverfront south of the Gateway Arch. The area is at left, south of downtown and the Poplar Street bridge.
Most of the site would be dedicated to the industrial portion of the project between Chouteau Avenue and Cedar Street, east of First Street. Dennis Lower, who previously ran the Cortex tech district and is now consulting on the development, told city officials the developer is planning on two major tenants coming in from the coasts to set up manufacturing operations.
Two high-rise residential towers would be built south of Interstate 64 north of Cedar Street, and additional living units would be built on the top floors of a building in the old Crunden Martin Manufacturing complex, Lower said, with retail to support them.
The entertainment and recreation portion of the project would go southwest of there and bring in attractions from a handful of national names. Lower said at least one part would be a world-class skate park.
Down on the landing Thursday afternoon, things were a little more down to earth. Workers, sweating in the summer heat, painted over graffiti. Cars drove through on their way to more lively part of the riverfront. And a horse-drawn carriage trotted down South Second Street.
Christine Ellis, owner of American Queen Carriage Co., said she runs one of three barns in the area. There’s a janitorial company up the street in one of the Crunden Martin buildings and a recently built storage hub to the south.
She’d heard the news about the redevelopment and the price tag on the work. She worried about some of the historic buildings in its way and the businesses that may have to move.
“I guess buyout money is buyout money,†she said. “Everyone will leave for a certain price.â€
But Ted Randazzo, who works for her, was more skeptical. Downtown is struggling: Office workers have yet to fully return. Restaurants and businesses have closed. High profile crime is scaring residents and tourists.
“Why,†he said, “would they want to come here?â€
