It’s now just an unexceptional pocket of midtown — a ºüÀêÊÓƵ neighborhood even some locals don’t realize is a thing.
But the portion of the neighborhood wedged between ºüÀêÊÓƵ University’s north campus and its hospital and medical complex to the south is poised for big changes. And a new name.
ºüÀêÊÓƵ University and its hospital partner SSM Health want area residents to help them pick it. for the area:
- Prospect Yards, a reference to the area just west of Grand Boulevard’s turn-of-the-20th-century moniker as the “Prospect Industrial District.â€
- The 1818, SLU’s founding year and a nod to the 18 rail lines that used to run under the Grand bridge.
- The Circuit, a nickname harking back to the area’s rail yard history and a reference to the big power lines running through it today.
- The GRID, short for the “Grand Rail Innovation District.â€
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The branding strategy has been applied to other city neighborhoods that have rebounded in recent years. Remember McRee Town? That’s Botanical Heights now . And before it was the Grove, a popular entertainment district in a neighborhood on the upswing, it was just a stretch of Manchester Avenue in Forest Park Southeast.
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SLU wants power to guide development, offer incentives in 395-acre area surrounding SSM's planned new hospital.Â
The organization’s director knows a thing or two about rebranding an area. About 10 years ago, Brooks Goedeker led efforts to get “The Grove†name to catch on while working at the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp., including the project to get the iconic signs hanging over Manchester Avenue.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Midtown Redevelopment Corp. hopes the new name will tie together the roughly $1 billion in construction projects planned in the area: food hall and entertainment redevelopment; into chic offices; hotel on Forest Park Parkway; and the new just to the south of the planned district’s southern boundary of Chouteau Avenue.
“With the tremendous amount of energy and investment that is occurring between ºüÀêÊÓƵ University’s north and south campuses, the only thing that is missing is a name,†Goedeker said in a statement.
“We want all of ºüÀêÊÓƵ to help decide what the region’s newest district will be called.â€
The district’s boundaries are slightly smaller than those of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Midtown Redevelopment Corporation, which can offer tax breaks to help guide development in the area. That entity, created by the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen, goes farther south, covering SLU Hospital and the footprint where SSM Health is building a new hospital in partnership with the university.
The district itself, whatever its eventual name, is roughly bounded by Vandeventer, Laclede, Grand and Chouteau avenues.
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