NorthSide "Retail Opportunities" Map Gives Glimpse into Expansive Development Plan

NorthSide “Retail Opportunities” Map Gives Glimpse into Expansive Development Plan

Every so often a snippet of NorthSide news pops up. What we know of development progress is piecemeal. Clearly the economy isn't aiding progress. The last significant development was the addition of the 17-acre, long stagnant, Bottle District to the development area. Although the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen agreed to transfer the $51M TIF ordinance to NorthSide, no development plans have been released, other than the acknowledgement that we will not see gleaming glass-skinned skyscrapers as previous developers had dreamed. News isn't exactly a State secret, but little is widely shared.

So what popped up recently was a map of "retail opportunities" as being marketed by NorthSide. Seems boring enough. But the issue of NorthSide, and it's an issue, as much as a development, is that many of these proposed retail developments are proposed for where homes and businesses reside. No doubt that most, if not very nearly all, proposed development opportunities being marketed are owned by NorthSide and Paul McKee, but an in-depth analysis will have to be done by someone with the time and expertise to sort through more than 1,000 NorthSide parcels and another 1,000 owned by the City of St. Louis, and are likely to be part of any NorthSide development.

So what popped up recently was a map of "retail opportunities" as being marketed by NorthSide. Seems boring enough. But the issue of NorthSide, and it's an issue, as much as a development, is that many of these proposed retail developments are proposed for where homes and businesses reside. No doubt that most, if not very nearly all, proposed development opportunities being marketed are owned by NorthSide and Paul McKee, but an in-depth analysis will have to be done by someone with the time and expertise to sort through more than 1,000 NorthSide parcels and another 1,000 owned by the City of St. Louis, and are likely to be part of any NorthSide development.

{red parcels shown are being marketed for commercial development, project area is outlined in red}

The map shows 27 separate parcels being marketed, ranging from approximately 25,000 square feet (parcel 4) to more than 1,000,000 square feet (parcel 18). Also being shown, a 15-stop "trolley" roughly running on Jefferson, Natural Bridge, 14th Street and Market. There is no credible speculation we've heard at this point as to specific retailers, but for reference, a Super Walmart's maximum size is ~240,000 square feet with a parking lot up to three times the building footprint (total of 1,000,000 sqare feet). The point is there's a lot of space shown for potential development.

{the largest site is just west of the Pruitt-Igoe site (forested area in this image)}