Posts Tagged ‘redevelopment’

Technicolor skies over Ferguson. Ah, the quiet joys of winter.

Like most people, I’m wrapping up 2009 with a mixed bag of good and bad. I fell short of several goals this year (no surprise), but as usual, the fact that I didn’t get rich or skinny was easily overshadowed by an abundance of other blessings. Good friends, a healthy and happy family, a loving husband – when I focus on all the positives in my life, the negatives are so much easier to handle.

And so it is with North County as well. During 2009, our underdog community continued to face a number of challenges, many a result of the flagging economy. Housing values dipped, several local retailers went out of business, and in terms of foreclosures, seven NoCo zip codes (including my own) were among the top ten hardest hit areas in the entire state of Missouri.

It would be easy to look at an older, discarded suburb like North County and assume that further decline is a guarantee. But that’s only if you’re not looking hard enough. Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with hundreds of NoCo residents and business owners and actively searched out positive news, and I can tell you with absolute certainty: there are good things happening in North County.

Here in Ferguson, CORK Wine Bar has been surprising lots of former NoCo naysayers, just as Ray Hill’s BrewHouse is bound to do when it opens in January. The Ferguson Farmers Market celebrated its seventh successful season. Overland’s new market also had a great inaugural year. In Bridgeton, several parks got a lovely facelift in 2009, and a new city government complex is currently being built. In the Old Jamestown area, residents won further legal protections for the uniquely beautiful Florissant Karst.

In the Spanish Lake area, a gorgeous new visitor center was built at the Confluence, helping to draw larger crowds to this amazing natural wonder. And all across North County, despite the steady drum beat of negativity regarding local schools, students and teachers at every school district won awards and made countless achievements that were rarely reported on the evening news.

This year also saw bright spots in terms of redevelopment: The Express Scripts distribution facility is currently under construction at NorthPark and will eventually create 300 new jobs. Seventy-six acres of new cargo facilities will soon be built in Hazelwood, just north of Lambert Airport. Also in Hazelwood, the long-vacant former Kmart was redeveloped into professional office and conference space, giving a boost to local small businesses. And on Dunn Road near Bellefontaine and 270, the National Archives and Records Administration is building a $100 million, 475,000-square-foot records center that will be home to 800 employees.

At the site of the former Gem department store, the largest National Archives building outside of Washington D.C. is being built. Right here in NoCo.

Will Bridgeton kick off 2010 by using TIF money to get a Super Wal-Mart built on the site of the former Value City? Will St. Louis County allow a casino to be built in a pristine natural area near Spanish Lake? Will Ferguson approve the demolition of 7-8 handsome vintage houses to make room for a CVS (right next to a Walgreens)? Only time will tell. But clearly, somebody sees potential in North County, so that’s a hopeful sign.

As for me, I’ve spent the past few weeks planning my NOCO articles for 2010, and wow, there are so many great stories coming down the pike! Historic golf courses, hookah lounges, musicians, ice skating, glee clubs, fun places for kids, aviation history, car collectors, private schools, dive bars, artists, local nonprofits, community gardens, and even one of the oldest fencing clubs in the country – you can read about all that and more in upcoming NOCO posts.

Donate $2 or more to NOCO and get this fun sticker! The tip jar is in the far right sidebar.

And if that’s not exciting enough, I’m also throwing in a bonus, meant to really rev up your North County mojo! Starting January 1, anyone who donates $2 or more to help keep NOCO up and running will receive a big fat NORTH COUNTY PRIDE bumper sticker – sure to be the envy of everyone in St. Louis!

(Don’t worry, it’ll fit just fine next to your FERG sticker. And you’ll finally be able to tell the world, or at least fellow drivers, “I’m from NoCo and damn proud!”)

Can a blog and a bumper sticker really turn the tide for North County? Honestly, I don’t know. But if you keep reading, I’ll keep writing. And with a little collective pride and a commitment to remain active, invested and hopeful in our community, I truly believe we can make 2010 an even brighter year for our beautiful little corner of St. Louis.

So Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you so much for supporting NOCO (and NoCo) in 2009!

Dear Santa, please let this eclectic school-turned-hotel in Portland, Oregon, serve as a model for creative revitalization in North County.

For nearly 30 years beginning in the 1970s, the historic neighborhoods of northeast Portland, Oregon, showed all the tell-tale signs of a community in decline. Housing values dropped, businesses got seedier, and the local grade school – a community landmark since 1915 – closed its doors and eventually was abandoned, causing many families to move away.

Northeast Portland became the part of town you’d avoid. There’s nothing left up there, people would say. But where most of Portland saw a fading, hopeless suburb wedged grimly between downtown and the airport, Mike and Brian McMenamin saw an opportunity. The owners of several popular brewpubs in the area (including the first one in the state of Oregon), the brothers came up with a creative plan to not only reinvigorate Northeast Portland but also to celebrate one of its finest assets: that beautiful, abandoned, circa 1915 grade school.

Whimsical paintings by local artists enliven nearly every wall at the Kennedy School in Portland.

Threatened with demolition, the elegant, Italian Renaissance-style “Kennedy School” had been saved by a coalition of local residents, former students and past PTA presidents when the McMenamins presented their plan for its revival. Following an exhaustive restoration incorporating the work of dozens of local artists and craftspeople, the brothers were determined to reinstate the school’s role as a busy, multi-use hub for the local community. They also wanted it to be a unique, memorable destination for visitors to Portland.

In their bold, way-outside-the-box vision, thirty five former classrooms would become boutique hotel suites, complete with original chalkboards and coat rooms. The old auditorium would be converted into an art house movie theater, served by the cafeteria-turned-restaurant next door. Several school rooms, including the former girls’ lavatory, would become cozy little pubs and cigar lounges serving McMenamin’s beer. Even the gymnasium would rise again, still as a classic locale for wedding receptions, but also as a lively spot for neighborhood basketball games, community meetings, blood drives, live concerts, and more.

Formerly the Kennedy School's cafeteria, the Courtyard Restaurant is now a hip Portland eatery that's jam-packed on weekends.

It was quite a diverse business model, and it worked. Because since the Kennedy School re-opened in 1997, the McMenamins have definitely exceeded their goals. Thousands of guests have stayed at their one-of-a-kind hotel, and even more have patronized its pubs, restaurants and theater. The reborn school has also provided an enormous economic and social boost for Northeast Portland, serving as a vibrant local hive where neighbors come together and where something fun is always on the calendar.

I tell you about the Kennedy School because it’s an amazing, magical place that I will never forget. Honestly, the McMenamins are two of my biggest heroes and I’m inspired by all of their fabulous brewpubs. I also tell you about the Kennedy School because I believe it’s exactly the type of brave, creative, lemons-to-lemonade project that North County desperately needs.

When you really start weighing our assets, we have no shortage of vintage buildings sitting empty or underutilized in NoCo, especially old schools. Off the top of my head, I can think of the former Masonic lodge in Ferguson, Storman-Stufflin School on Chambers, and St. Aloysius Church and School in Spanish Lake. Who knows how many more we’ll have as Catholic grade schools continue to close.

At the same time, North County also has a dire need for a decent live music venue – a hall with great character and good acoustics where maybe 200-300 people could enjoy an eclectic (and yes, even hip) mix of performers. If that same venue also housed an independent movie theater, I know I’m not the only North Countian who would be mighty pleased.

Sometimes a movie theater, sometimes a concert venue, the Kennedy School's converted auditorium is a community hot spot.

Now, I know what you’re saying…North County is no Portland! And I know that. But if the McMenamins’ successful concoction of beer, culture and community could turn around working-class Northeast Portland, who’s to say that it couldn’t work here as well, if even on a smaller scale? For once, why couldn’t North County be the place to embrace something truly special and progressive, something that would change minds and start drawing more folks northward?

We’ve got the buildings. We’ve got the artists. And we certainly have the people who love beer. Just imagine: North County as a destination.

That is my NoCo Christmas wish. Santa, I hope you’re reading…

(If you are reading, dear NOCO fan, don’t forget to vote in my new poll! It’s in the sidebar on the right.)

Under construction at Evans and Hanley in the NorthPark development, this building will house Express Scripts' new distribution facility.

It has been a very good month for commercial real estate development in North County. First, Express Scripts ended a cross-country battle for its proposed distribution facility by deciding that NoCo, not suburban Philadelphia, would be the site of its new plant. Then today, Lambert Airport announced that it will soon sign a deal with Maryland-based AeroTerm LLC to build 76 acres of new cargo centers just north of the runways.

The new Express Scripts facility will employ 300 workers and process up to 110,000 prescriptions every day. It’s expected to open in the spring. The new cargo buildings will amount to at least $40 million in local investment, and hopefully play a key role in Lambert’s plan to attract Chinese air freight carriers to the airport area.

Paul McKee, whose company McEagle is co-developing NorthPark, the 550-acre business park at Hanley Road and Hwy 70 where the new Express Scripts plant is being built, has said that luring Chinese cargo business to Lambert is vital to the success of his project, as well as the economic future of North County.

Ferguson's old fountain is becoming a waterfall

For years, the fountain at the intersection of Church St and Florissant Rd has been a bit wonky. I remember walking by a few years ago and the water was alternating between a tiny dribble and a massive, geyser-like burst reaching 30 feet in the air.

Clearly the plumbing was due for an update. And now it’s getting that and much more. In place of the old fountain will soon be a gently cascading waterfall, streaming down the hillside over a layer of beautiful natural boulders. (Thank you, Ferguson Public Works Dept!)

When I first saw the boulders, I worried that they might not “fit” our historic downtown. But then I found this old postcard – an image of the Wabash train bridge in 1918, showing gorgeous natural stone on the underpass walls. Looks like somebody got it right…

Looking north on Florissant Road at Carson, 1918

Jamestown Mall becomes Lindbergh Place

I grew up right next door to Jamestown Mall. My first job was there (at York Steak House). Most of my friends worked there. I even had my first “rock star” experience there, when I saw Rick Springfield sing “Jesse’s Girl” to mobs of screaming fans.

Like many NoCo residents, Jamestown holds a lot of memories for me. That’s why I was sad yet intrigued to learn that the Urban Land Institute (ULI) recently recommended demolishing the mall and replacing it with a “town center.”

ULI was hired by St. Louis County to assess Jamestown Mall’s future viability, and what they presented at a packed-house public forum a couple weeks ago was both grim and encouraging. Basically Jamestown no longer has the traffic count or the population base to remain a regional mall. The planning and development experts from ULI say that it cannot survive as is.

Read the rest of this entry »