Downtown

The Downtown North Community Improvement District would formalize some of the actions taken by individual property owners to promote the area of downtown as an emerging geospatial and entrepreneurial hub.

The Staenberg Group has plans to redevelop the site into a “Downtown Chesterfield” with housing, retail spaces, restaurants and more. Developers expect it to be four years before people can start moving into new residential units.

The region is already set to host the Division I Men’s Ice Hockey finals 2025 and the first and second rounds of the Division I Men’s Basketball championship in 2026.

The 28-story, 780-room hotel closed in 2014. The foundation plans to work with the city, Greater St. Louis Inc. and the St. Louis Development Corporation on a plan to redevelop the site.

It’s a project that takes cues from similar ones built across the country in recent years in places like Austin, Dallas, Phoenix and San Jose.

The small district tucked directly north of the Gateway Arch National Park has quietly undergone a massive redevelopment in the past half-dozen years.

The old paradigm in downtown St. Louis, that of a central business district with millions of square feet of office space, has faltered in recent years.

Last month, the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority Board first brought up the possibility of a blighting study and redevelopment plan, but the board voted to table that item as the draft of the study wasn’t complete.

After 40 years of shows, the tiny music district south of Busch Stadium continues to evolve, with newer club owners hoping to expand it.

The region’s urban core has struggled to rebound since the pandemic, with a slew of companies relocating their offices away from downtown. Urban centers with more diverse economic sectors have shown to be more resilient coming back from the pandemic.