Project images added April 2016:
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After several false starts, the City Walk project featuring a 30,000 sf Whole Foods grocery is now set to break ground. As nextSTL reported earlier this month, a $50M building permit has been filed with the city and construction is expected to begin soon. Originally slated for 159 units, City Walk has added a few apartments and final plans call for 177 one, two and three bedroom apartments. The not-popular-with-everyone clock tower remains. According to Mill Properties, it will top out at 160 feet and be fully functional.
The final project is virtually unchanged from the early 2010 images. The most significant change is the addition of a seventh story to the eastern portion of the building in anticipation of high market demand. The residential and retail portion of the project wrap a 438 space parking garage that will serve both residents and Whole Foods shoppers. The portion of the garage serving residents will be secured from the retail spaces and give direct access to interior corridors. For the first time, we also have renderings of the shared pool and outdoor rooftop spaces.
Fox2now has a nice round up on development in the city’s Central West End neighborhood, highlighting the new Shriners hospital, the additional 10-year $1B medical center development, the Opus proposal for Euclid and Lindell, and the long awaited City Walk. They mention Cortex and point to Aventura, but don’t even hit on the nearby Mercedes dealership and Cortona apartments. All of this led us to Tweet: “St. Louis is hot – people are going to have to get used to it.” And all of that is not to mention the massive St. Louis Zoo project and the proposed Lindell-Olive Streetcar…
Anyway, the large number and size of the projects currently underway will transform the area in the coming years. While the promotional material uses the expected sales lingo, “Set amidst boutique shops, restaurants offering diverse cultural cuisine, coffee shops and clubs, CityWalk is the ultimate location where vibrancy meets convenience”, this corner of that vibrant part of the city has been fairly dead for years.
{little has changed other than the addition of a full seventh story and 18 apartments}
While the medical center investment is massive, it’s also incremental. Additional apartments are important and will add to the area’s density. But what’s transformational here is Whole Foods. As we’ve detailed previously, regardless of one’s inclination to shop at Whole Foods, its presence will have a significant impact on the perception and reality of the city. The one business likely less than enthused about the project is Straub’s, the neighborhood grocer since 1948. We expect to hear more on their plans soon.
From The Whole Foods Effect and the Central West End: We know the Central West End as a great urban neighborhood. It may just take having a Whole Foods open to get banks and developers to realize the same and put a shovel in the ground. It’s easy to imagine other projects coming online as this development gets started. The empty building at Lindell and Euclid, the surface parking along West Pine and Lindell west of Euclid, the empty storefront across the street. If you question the impact of a Whole Foods, just watch. This development marks a significant leap forward for this corner of the city.
{the future site of Whole Foods and City Walk is a 1.65 acre vacant lot – center-right}
{the parking garage will be wrapped behind the Whole Foods and apartments}
Looks like those Whole Foods signs will be smaller than we once envisioned. We’re guessing people will find it anyway:
Project under construction:
