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As new MetroLink routes reach completion and buses continue to rumble along metro area streets and highways, another element of Metro (still Bi-State Development Agency to some of us) rolls along as well.
Not literally—well, some of the time, if you consider the landing gear of the airplanes that use St. Louis Downtown Airport. The Business Enterprises Division of Metro encompasses: the St. Louis Downtown Airport, the Gateway Arch, the Gateway Arch Riverboats, the Gateway Arch Parking Facility, and the Gateway Arch Riverfront Sales and Marketing Department.
Since the early 1960s Metro has been charged with a wide range of transportation issues, from developing the tram system for the Arch, to facilitating development at the Sauget airport that Bob McDaniel, director, refers to as “the front door to St Louis for business aviation.”
Meanwhile, says Jennifer Nixon, senior vice president at Metro, market research and focus groups have indicated that while visitors love the Arch and the Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher riverboats, they’re looking for plenty else to do.
The expansive Arch ground incorporate swooping, breathtaking steps that lead from the base of the monument’s legs to the
cobblestones of the riverbank itself, and the gangplanks that lead to the riverboats. In between is Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, which parallels the Mississippi.
“A lot of people have never been on this street,” Nixon observed with a smile, while conducting the “dime” tour of the areas under Metro’s umbrella. People needed more inviting space, less passive space, with more going on at every turn—much like Chicago’s wildly popular Navy Pier. The answer could be expected, since much of the recent research was conducted in the Windy City, a major market for St. Louis tourism.
Changes have been great and small on the Riverfront, from more attractive signage to new attractions and activities, such as bicycle rental and a heliport, both of which are expected to be operational this spring.
Nixon, joined on the tour by Tom Etling, Gateway Arch Riverfront Director of Sales and Marketing, and Dave Sanders, Business Enterprises Director of Strategic Development, pointed out that the task has been made less daunting with the cooperation of entities, including the Missouri and Illinois departments of transportation, the City of St. Louis streets department, and the National Parks Service. All riverboats rise with the current, to adapt an oft-employed aphorism for working together despite challenges.
For example, when Metro expressed
frustration that many street signs were
confusing or missing, the city streets department’s Jim Suelmann did more than lend an ear. Signs were replaced or redesigned; fewer “Snow Route” and “No Parking” signs dot the Riverfront, making it a more inviting spot for tourists and for drivers in general.
“An alphabet soup of organizations has managed to pull it off,” Nixon said proudly. Added Etling: “We needed for the park not to exist on an island.”
The task was accomplished with no taxpayer monies, and unpalatable options like cutting the riverboats loose, figuratively, were considered during planning and execution. Since Metro purchased, renovated and took over operations of the riverboats in 2001, the number of sightseeing passengers has increased by more than 63 percent.
In full view of the Arch is St. Louis Downtown Airport, which has seen many name changes since it first opened in 1929 as Curtiss-Steinberg Airport. The field was established by a group including Curtiss Wright, the aircraft and engine manufacturing firm, and the Transcontinental Air Transport Service (later TWA)—as a high-quality air
terminus offering paved runways.
Today, the airport is how many high-profile businesspeople and celebrities come in to St. Louis without fanfare or paparazzi. For the Final Four last year, recalls McDaniel, not eight minutes before tip-off, the last jet to arrive was Michael Jordan’s—and the superstar made it in time to watch the contest. Traffic, whether in the air or on the highways, isn’t a problem that typically interferes with the airport’s nearly 200,000 operations annually.
Air travel isn’t the only focus of the airport, as its largest tenant, Midcoast Aviation, is in the business of repairing, restoring and remodeling aircraft. Jet Aviation Group of Zurich, Switzerland, on Jan. 31 agreed to buy Midcoast at terms that were not disclosed. Sales at Midcoast have tripled since Sabreliner Corp. of Clayton in 1994 bought the company from Trans World Airlines. Midcoast expects annual revenue to increase by more than 40 percent to $200 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Customizing jets for Fortune 500 companies and regional business travelers already fills a hangar of 43,000 square feet, and Midcoast expects to add 100 employees and build a new hangar of 120,000 square feet.
McDaniel says annual throughput is between 70 and 100 aircraft, as luxuriously appointed as one can imagine when the owners are CEOs, royalty, and the likes of Paul Newman and Jim Carrey. Materials include leather, not surprisingly, and woods as exotic as one can imagine.
McDaniel notes with pride that by spring another landmark in the region will be
reaching toward the sky. Ground was broken last fall for a new control tower to replace the “temporary” one that was built in
1973 with an expected lifespan of only
15 years.
McDaniel notes that the airport’s annual economic impact on the St. Louis region is already $190 million. And with 1,013 acres altogether, there’s plenty of real estate available for further development.
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SO... YOU THINK YOU KNOW METRO? |
Metro has faced some interesting jurisdictional and engineering challenges in just the last 40 years or so.
Back in the day, you really couldn’t get there from here without a hassle, numerous private bus companies served the region. If you were on one bus crossing Clayton, say, you’d have to get off and board another bus serving the adjacent municipality.
 When trying to arrive at a feasible design for the Gateway Arch tram system, a lot of ideas were put forth. Then it was back to the drawing board. A Ferris-wheel style continuous loop system was scratched upon the realization that riders would be making half the trip in the dark.
Dick Bowser, the designer of the Gateway Arch tram system, was a college dropout. In 1942, Bowser left the University of Maryland to enlist in the Navy, serving as a fire
controlman on a destroyer in the Pacific.
The Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher riverboats (Gateway Arch Riverboats) were built during the construction of the Arch specifically for providing visitors views of the Arch from the Mississippi River.
In addition to hosting about 200,000 visitors each year in St. Louis, the Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher also travel to other towns along the Mississippi River. In fact, they are one of the biggest factors in Kimmswick tourism, cruising more than 2,000 people to and from Kimmswick and the Blue Owl Restaurant each summer.
Numerous famous pilots in American aviation history, including Charles A. Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle and Amelia Earhart, visited the now St. Louis Downtown Airport. Doolittle crashed during an air fair at the Airport, barely escaping with his life.
Founded in 1927 by Oliver “Lafe” Parks, SLU’s Parks College was America’s first
federally certified school of aviation.
Parks was injured in a 1927 plane crash near a Jesuit seminary in Florissant. He felt deeply indebted to the Jesuit priests who rushed to help him, and in 1946, donated Parks College to Saint Louis University.
The Gateway Arch Riverfront (Gateway Arch, Old Courthouse, Gateway Arch Riverboats) attracts more than four million visitors to downtown St. Louis each year, making it the largest attraction in the State and one of the most visited sites in the U.S. |
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