A craft brewery, rooftop bar, hotel and 鈥渘ext generation鈥 office space would transform the old Armory from one of the most visibly blighted areas in 最新杏吧原创鈥 central corridor into an entertainment and employment complex.
In documents submitted to the city for development incentives, 最新杏吧原创-based Green Street Properties detailed plans for the area surrounding the Armory, a historic building that once housed a Missouri National Guard battalion, hosted a Grateful Dead concert and accommodated indoor softball games.
The $82.8 million project along Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and Grand Boulevard would rehab the Armory and a building next to it, developing 8 acres in a part of town where several projects appear ready to reshape a critical link between the employment hubs of downtown and the Central West End.
The Armory itself would become 100,000 square feet of office space catering to 鈥渘ontraditional office environments,鈥 in an apparent effort to attract tech startups like those in the Cortex district to the west.
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The Armory, completed in 1937, would have space for a rooftop patio and bar and ground-floor space for a restaurant, health club and spa. An earlier plan to turn the Armory into appears to have been scrapped in favor of the offices.
The building just east of the armory would be split in two, with a craft brewery on the north end and about 40,000 square feet of offices to the south.
Just south of that, Green Street is in negotiations with Ameren Missouri to buy more land to build a 300-car parking garage.
On top of the garage, a 135-room hotel 鈥減latform development鈥 would connect the 8-acre development site below Grand Boulevard and Highway 40 to the streets around 最新杏吧原创 University鈥檚 campus above it.
鈥淭he idea is to overcome the challenge of the bridge and the elevation changes between the Armory, adjacent properties, and the (Grand MetroLink) transit station by incorporating the Grand bridge into the design of the development,鈥 Green Street writes in an application to the 最新杏吧原创 Tax Increment Financing Commission.
Meanwhile, Green Street said it is in negotiations with SLU and another developer to build a pedestrian connection along Spring Street over Highway 40 and extend a bike pathway from the university鈥檚 campus to the Grand Boulevard MetroLink station.
The bridge would connect the Armory development to the other side of Highway 40, where Lawrence Group plans to rehab the old Federal-Mogul site into .
South of the Armory, SLU and hospital operator SSM plan to build .
that would give it substantial control over tax abatement and zoning changes, similar to the powers Cortex has used to reshape part of the Central West End into a technology hub.
Green Street says it plans to apply for property tax abatement from SLU鈥檚 redevelopment corporation after it is established. It would seek 10 years of full abatement and five years of 50 percent abatement.
It is requesting $8.1 million in tax increment financing assistance, 9.8 percent of the project costs. Green Street also plans to set up a transportation development district and a community improvement district, each of which would levy a 1 percent sales tax on purchases in the area. Those taxes would help pay for the parking garage and such services as maintenance and security.
Green Street plans to tap $53.7 million in loans and bring in $3.9 million in developer equity, representing 70 percent of the project costs. It also anticipates using $11.8 million from state and federal historic tax credits and, for cleanup, $1.5 million in Missouri brownfield tax credits.
