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THE GRANDE DAME
GETS A FACE LIFT
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By Linda F. Jarrett
Visitors walking through the revolving doors of the Chase Park
Plaza, immediately sense that this is a special place. The phrase
“if these walls could talk” springs to mind.
Last October, Chase Park Plaza owners Kingsdell LP announced
a $160 million redevelopment turning 18 of the historic hotel’s
34 floors into The Private Residences at the Chase Park Plaza.
This endeavor marks the most significant investment in the structure
since Kingsdell purchased the 84-year old property in 1997.
Besides the Private Residences encompassing floors nine through
27, the redevelopment includes adding 90 new hotel rooms on
floors three, four and five, and adding 48 corporate apartments
on floors six through eight.
Construction began in March, with the first residences opening
in summer 2008 and the entire project completed by fall 2009.
The Private Residences will include all the amenities that inhabitants
of the venerable Chase Park Plaza would expect, including an
18,000-square-foot health club and gym, in-demand modern furnishings,
soundproof walls, a dog-walking area, 24-hour room service and
an indoor parking garage.
Some of the residences feature terraces of over 1,000 square
feet offering magnificent views to the west of Forest Park and
to the east of the City and the Arch.
“This is four star hotel living,” says Marsha Smith Niedringhaus,
vice president of Kingsdell and vice-president/General Counsel
of IFC Inc., developers of the project. “Groceries could be
delivered right to your door, our executive chefs could prepare
meals in your home for dinner, or you could unwind with a dip
in the pool. We are pleased to offer the same level of exceptional
service received by our hotel guests to those who will make
the building their home.”
NOT AN EASY PROCESS
Making this plan into a reality will not be a walk in the park,
so to speak.
“Right now, you can have heat or you can have air conditioning,”
Niedringhaus says. “Once the heat is on, it’s on for the winter,
and you know how St. Louis weather is.
“We’re basically putting a bobcat on every floor and gutting
the building. That’s the only way to get back to what really
needs to happen. We’re putting in all new mechanical, electrical,
plumbing, and fire protection.”
Residents of the elegant old apartments, many with two-story
windows, winding staircases and classic millwork and moldings,
left a few weeks before the rehab work began.
BSI Constructors Inc. is handling general contracting duties.
“It’s going to be the premier high rise residential development
in town,” says BSI Principal and Project Executive Jim Shaughnessy.
“The neighborhood is already well established with Straub’s
across the street, dozens of restaurants nearby, and you combine
that with Forest Park—you don’t have to take a leap of faith
that it’s going to be nice someday. It’s already there and fantastic!”
The Chase being on the National Register of Historic Places
brings various construction requirements.
“We have to adhere to thorough federal and state guidelines
unique to this project,” Shaughnessy says, “For example we need
to locate corridors and replicate the trim and moldings, and
that can be difficult.”
To do this, BSI pulled samples from the existing building and
custom milled all the trims to replicate the originals.
“We want to maintain the Chase Park Plaza as a premier property,”
he says, “and to that end, the baseline finish for all these
condo units is of the highest quality.
Everyone on the BSI team is extremely committed to delivering
a quality product.”
One of the challenges of the job is working in an atmosphere
where people still go about their daily business.
“Usually,” Shaughnessy says, “When you do a job of this type,
the building is empty. However, Jim Smith and Marsha Smith Niedringhaus
have a world-class conference center on the first and second
floor that needs to remain operational.
“These are very important clients, so, instead of going in and
being a bull in a China shop and turning everything around,
it requires a degree in special management to be doing mass
demolition on the third floor and cutting off all the piping
as it goes through the building and finding a way to reengineer
systems.
Niedringhaus says that there would be no way a structure like
the Chase with its function could be built now. “You would put
yourself out of business. This building has terra cotta stonework.
It took us over a year to have terra cotta replacement pieces
that broke in the mold when we were doing them five years ago.”
The 87 new residences will range from 1,020 to 4,217 square
feet and list for $400,000 to $2.5 million.
A 7,500-square-foot sales center shows prospective tenants all
that the Residences will offer, and showcases the experience
of living at the Chase Park Plaza with models of a two-bedroom
floor plan plus vignettes of other floor plans. The center also
serves as a one-stop selection site for flooring, tile, stone,
lighting, finishes and other accoutrements for the residences.
The sales center has already seen a lot of activity since close
to 50 percent of the Private Residences is already purchased,
Niedringhaus says.
THE PAST MEETING THE FUTURE
The Chase Park Plaza began as two buildings in 1920s with apartments
and adjoining hotel. Sam Koplar conceived the Park Plaza in
1929, and the 30-story high-rise was seen as one of the more
daunting projects for its time.
It quickly became a St. Louis landmark and “The Place To Stay”
for royalty and celebrities throughout the years. The Khorassan
Ballroom, Zodiac Room, the Starlight Roof and Tenderloin Room
all conjured up visions of high society, glamour and excellence
and, indeed, lived up to these images.
The Chase Park Plaza has seen owners and partnerships come and
go, even closing for a short time, but it has survived, a familiar
site rising from the corner of Kingshighway and Lindell boulevards.
Now, it has added a five-screen movie theater, a $3 million
renovated 18,000-square-foot conference center, and Café Eau
and Eau Bistro, the more to offer not only its new residents,
but many people for whom the Chase represents an important part
of St. Louis.
The Chase Park Plaza has been St. Louis’ cultural epicenter
for more than 80 years,” says Jim Smith, managing general partner
with Kingsdell.
“The Chase Park Plaza has been a steadfast landmark in St. Louis’
cultural and visual landscape for decades,” Niedringhaus Smith
says. “Over time, even landmarks need to join the progress going
on around them and we’re excited to usher The Chase Park Plaza
into the next stage of its fantastic history, and bring a new
style of living to St. Louis.”
This redevelopment insures that the “Grande Dame” will maintain
that reputation for many more years.
BSI
Knows How to Have Fun
St. Louis does not suffer from a lack of well-known
attractions, beloved by visitors and hometowners alike.
BSI Constructors Inc. is responsible for many of these attractions.
“We have been fortunate to be involved with many of the
projects in town that people identify St. Louis with,” says
Shaughnessy. “And we’re construction manager on the Forest
Park Forever projects.”
Some of these include the Jewel Box, the Grand Basin, the
Forest Park Boathouse, the World’s Fair Pavilion, and the
Children’s Playground, a state-of-the-art facility that
is accessible for all children.
“We knew there was a special need for that type of playground,”
Shaughnessy says.
“And for all that Forest Park has, it didn’t have a playground
at all, so this has brought a new element into the park.”
BSI has also headed up high profile projects and renovations
for the Missouri Botanical Garden including the Butterfly
House in Faust Park, the Climatron renovation, the English
Woodland Garden, the Kemper Center, The Shoenberg Temperate
House and the Friendship Chinese Garden.
Vice President Joe Kaiser says all their projects have had
special challenges. “In Forest Park, we have to work around
people and close off a lot of areas.
“The Botanical Garden was even more restricted,” he says.
“In the case of the Chinese Garden, we were right in the
middle of the garden. The pavilion structure was donated
by the Chinese, dissembled in China, shipped over here and
reassembled by six Chinese craftspeople,” he says. “We all
managed to learn each other’s language by using a lot of
sign language!”
“These are all institutional and St. Louis landmarks,” Shaughnessy
says. “We do this in the context of working to the highest
level of quality possible in an occupied environment.”
BSI has played, and continues to play, a large part in putting
St. Louis at the top of many “Best Of…Lists” when it comes
to family attractions, and the level of their commitment
shows. |
Tales
From The Lady
It’s safe to say that probably no
hotel in St. Louis, if not the region, has welcomed the
great and near great like the Chase Park Plaza. And few
can tell the stories like Chief Concierge Jeanne Venn.
Stories such as Bob Hope’s love of
peppermint ice cream. “He would stay here twice a year,”
she says. “We always had to have the fridge stocked with
peppermint ice cream. He loved ice cream!”
Sammy Davis forged his association with the Variety Club
when he stayed at the Chase.
“He was appearing at the Fox,” Venn says. “He happened upon
the Variety Club, and it really affected him seeing the
kids in the wheelchairs, and that’s how he got connected
with the Variety Club.”
Venn says Davis was “an interesting character.” Besides
having to have a refrigerator stocked with strawberry soda,
he made one unusual request that stood out in her mind.
“At 2 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, he said that he had
12 suits that needed cleaning. Cleaners weren’t open on
Saturdays then, and we had to convince a cleaners to open,
and I physically walked them over.”
Another celebrity with an unusual request was Anthony Quinn.
“He was here for five days, and we set up an art studio
on the 25th floor so he could continue his painting.”
Jerry Lewis brought his “teeny dogs” that were used to setting
their paws on the Las Vegas sand.
“They didn’t like walking in the city streets or parks,”
Venn says. “So we recreated the Las Vegas terrain on Maryland
Avenue, complete with sand and a palm tree. Then they were
happy.”
Some names she did not divulge, such as the (still famous)
major star who decided to skinny dip in the pool at 2 a.m.
Stories of Frank Sinatra and the fabled “Rat Pack” abound,
but the ever-discreet Venn, who came onboard in 1979 after
their many visits, will not go in to detail about those
either, other than to say, “I heard all the wild stories,
because there was a lot that went on in those days, in the
40s, 50s and 60s!”
But she did tell an interesting story about Jerry Lee Lewis
who was appearing one New Year’s Eve in the Khorassan Room.
“He was wanted by the police, so we walked him on a catwalk
around the Khorassan Room to get to backstage so he would
avoid the police. They wouldn’t get to him on stage.”
Venn believes the Chase has a definite magic. “There’s a
special feeling that attaches itself to people coming here.
There is such an aura, a potpourri of so many things…meetings,
engagements, receptions, conceptions!
When I first came here,” Venn says. “There was a lady who
had been here for 25 years. She said the ‘lady,’ (meaning
the Chase), has a mind and spirit of her own. She said,
‘It reaches out and touches some people, and says, ‘You
will be one of my caretakers.’ It happened to me, and it
will happen to you.’ And it has.”
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