The Cordish Cos. has been selected to execute a nearly $670 million redevelopment of the long-vacant Millennium Hotel, the nonprofit Gateway Arch Park Foundation announced Wednesday morning.
The developer plans to build 1.3 million square feet that combine residential, office, commercial and public spaces together. It’s proposed to include upscale residential, Class A office space, an amphitheater, a food hall, an improved streetscape and other amenities.
“This does provide a once-in-a-generation moment for us to reimagine this iconic landscape of the front door of St. Louis,” said Ballpark Village President Mike LaMartina, who also oversees the St. Louis market for the Cordish Cos. “It [is] a unique opportunity to not only create the best views of our entire city, but a mixed use [development] that acknowledges living, working, leisure, public space all in one site.”
The proposed development would be a marked change for the prominent and iconic hotel between the Gateway Arch grounds and Busch Stadium, which has sat vacant since 2014. Gateway Arch Park Foundation went under contract to purchase the site last September after the city threatened to use eminent domain to acquire it.
“We want this site to be something that St. Louis will be proud of, that it will be an economic driver for the region again,” said foundation Executive Director Ryan McClure. "Their plan is bold, imaginative, creative and frankly, it’s what St. Louis deserves.”
In addition to the need for mixed-use downtown, LaMartina noted the opportunity to focus a development on connecting existing spaces in the Gateway Arch grounds, Kiener Plaza, Ballpark Village, Busch Stadium and others that can see millions of visitors each year.
“These anchors surrounding this site are all walkable destinations, [and] right now the connectivity between them is a little disjointed,” he said. “We want to emphasize pedestrian thoroughfare, accessibility, walkability, public transportation.”
Emphasizing connectivity was one of the key priorities for the site as the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, Greater St. Louis Inc. and the St. Louis Development Corporation worked together on a request for proposals, said SLDC President and CEO Neal Richardson.
“This cannot be your typical big-glass structure,” he said. “It had to really be focused on addressing the blight [of the Millennium Hotel] and show the entire country that St. Louis is open for business, ripe for redevelopment, and we can get big projects done.”
The timing of Wednesday’s announcement sets the tone for a new downtown and era for the city, Richardson said.
Reporting in the Wall Street Journal last year characterized St. Louis’ downtown as a “real estate nightmare,” prompting Mayor Tishaura Jones to challenge SLDC and Greater St. Louis Inc. to devise a plan for two prominent vacant buildings in the Millennium Hotel and Railway Exchange building.
“This is a really transformational moment for downtown St. Louis,” Richardson said. “It also signals to the rest of the country that St. Louis is moving in the right direction, and we will no longer be coined as ‘the doom loop.’”
McClure said the foundation was eyeing a solution to the property years earlier. It means the nonprofit is stepping into an unfamiliar space by going under contract to purchase the building from its current Singaporean owners, he said.
“Our board and our donors have been incredibly supportive of this initiative. Something that is, quite frankly, a risk, but it's a risk worth taking because it's the right thing to do,” McClure said. “We’re not real estate developers, and we’re not looking to get into that business.”
They facilitated collaboration that McClure expects will lead to redevelopment at the site. He added it will mean demolishing an iconic property that many St. Louisans are attached to.
“We completely understand that there’s nostalgia and memories for this site. How could there not be?” McClure said. “At the same time, we’ve got a chance to do something bold and new that cannot be done with the existing structures.”
He added that all of the development proposals that his organization received were for complete demolition. The request put out included the option for adaptive reuse of the existing buildings, McClure said.
“That’s what the market is telling us,” McClure said. “We put out a [request for proposal] that said you can do adaptive reuse for these buildings or complete demolition and start fresh.”
LaMartina said Cordish Cos.’s planned redevelopment of the Millennium Hotel site could help create a destination downtown that people flock to year-round, LaMartina said. That could help spur momentum for long-desired development that leans into the St. Louis riverfront.
“Our goal is that this creates an opportunity for other seismic effects that can traverse up and down the riverfront and continue through the downtown core,” LaMartina said.
McClure characterized Cordish Cos. as a “world-class U.S. developer” and lauded it for further committing to St. Louis. The developer has experience with upscale mixed-use, entertainment and hospitality developments and has garnered several Urban Land Institute Awards for Excellence for other projects it has done.
“That just speaks to Cordish’s experience doing transformational projects in urban cores, and that’s what we need,” McClure said.
The developer’s track record includes sizable work in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, across the state in Kansas City’s Power & Light District and locally with Ballpark Village. LaMartina said the addition of the Millennium Hotel site augments Cordish’s local presence.
“These sites are meant to be complementary to each other for the benefit of St. Louis,” he said. “The timing of them is not an obstacle to us by any means.”
McClure said the redevelopment plan is set to go before the city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority board meeting next Tuesday, where the board may vote to approve the concept and development partnership.
“Getting that approval will be a big step in terms of determining the timeline of when we’ll close on the property,” he said, adding he hopes it will happen in the coming months.
Richardson said the long contract to purchase the Millennium Hotel property is because Gateway Arch Park Foundation wanted an identified developer for it. It’s a significant financial commitment for an organization that fundamentally isn’t in the business of development, he added.
“The strategy that we took for them was to enter into an option agreement, identify a long-term developer of the site, and then work with the developer to close on the property and ultimately bring this project to fruition,” Richardson said.
This story has been updated.
