ST. LOUIS — St. Louis’ new Major League Soccer team has proposed a four-story parking garage north of its stadium with ground-floor retail and event space that officials say will help create a year-round draw to the campus.
The garage will hold 450 vehicles and dozens of electric vehicle charging stations and bike parking spots, St. Louis City SC announced Tuesday. The building is part of plans to reinvigorate the Downtown West neighborhood around the soccer stadium, which is now under construction, drawing on the appeal of nearby destinations such as Union Station, the aquarium and the Gateway Arch.
The ownership group, consisting of Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s Taylor family and World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, want the stadium, at North 20th and Market streets, to lure foot traffic with concerts and other community events when it opens for the 2023 season.
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“We believe the stadium will have a magnetic quality that draws people to the district 365 days a year,†Julie Snow, founding principal at Snow Kreilich Architects, which is leading the garage design, said in a statement Tuesday.
The garage will be in the 1900 block of Olive Street. It was part of a promise from the team to replace surface parking lots — now part of the stadium’s footprint — that were being used by area businesses and residents. The ground-floor retail will feature folding doors that can be opened to create canopy shading for pop-up events. The team has not yet selected retailers for the space.
No other specifics about the garage, including a construction timeline and costs, were available. City records show the team received a building permit valued at $20 million for the project.
Rendering depicts the westside of the four-story garage in the 1900 block of Olive Street that will be built near the new soccer stadium in downtown west. (Handout)
The team demolished several century-old mixed-use buildings to make way for the garage. Preservationists lamented the loss at the time, saying the buildings could have been reused as restaurants, bars and shops to help enhance the environment the team is seeking to build.
But preservationists now support the team for focusing almost exclusively on redeveloping vacant land for the stadium and believe the development will catalyze the revitalization of nearby historic buildings, said Andrew Weil, executive director of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis.
One developer, Development Services Group of Memphis, already has bet on the stadium’s appeal by buying the Butler Brothers Building, located three blocks away. The company plans to turn the historic property into apartments.
“In the grand scheme of things, this development ... is already having a major positive impact for the future of Union Station and many other currently vacant historic buildings,†Weil said in an email. “We applaud its ownership group for choosing to make such a significant investment in downtown St. Louis.â€
The key for ownership now will be selecting the right tenants that foster the year-round environment, said Ben Cherry, president of commercial real estate firm Manor Real Estate. The “ideal†retailers, Cherry said, are local.
“The time is ripe for Downtown West to start to see some momentum starting to build,†he said.
