By Kevin Kipp
If you want a good pickle, you can’t just squirt vinegar on a cucumber.
You gotta let it soak a while.
Developer Richard Baron says he and architect Andy Trivers have
thought about the 12 acres of Cupples Station since 1980. It was
owned by Washington University. The two met with the manager of
the complex. “We thought then that it would be a wonderful mixed-use
project that could solidify the southern half of downtown St. Louis,”
Baron says.
The first
phase of the reincarnated
Cupples opened March 8. |
With the opening last March of a posh, 257-room Westin at 811 Spruce
in three converted warehouses, the first component of their $355
million masterplan is in place.
Luxurious
Westin Hotel rooms disguise
what was once a warehouse. |
“Hopefully this will help show people in St. Louis that existing
buildings, even warehouses, have the possibility to become useful
as part of our redevelopment downtown," Trivers says.
Developers, politicians, academicians, journalists and other city-lover-types
had discussed the future of these warehouses near Busch Stadium
since several were torn down to provide access to the ballpark.
In 1971, the remaining 10 received the protection of landmark designation.
In renovating
Cupples, every beam
and column and wall connection
needs to be investigated for structural
strength. |
In separate interviews,
Trivers and Baron referred obliquely to the brief chapter of the
property's history during which the corporate community had pressed
plans to raze the brick structures, and build an indoor facility
that would have replaced the then-standing-on-Oakland Arena.
Long story
short, Baron says: "Blue Cross Blue Shield ended up with
the property in the early '90s. In 1994, they asked us to do a
development feasibility study. We became convinced of the need
for a unique four-star hotel in downtown St. Louis."
For one thing,
Baron points out, downtown was "losing hundreds of room-nights
to Clayton, and the Ritz. We had no comparable hotel…a meeting
place for business people and executives from out of town, or
lawyers using the Courthouse [Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse].
This location was ideal for a hotel project, including the MetroLink
stop."
Over the
next couple of years Baron showed the property to eight-plus hotel
developers. Finding none who shared his vision for the property,
Baron says, "We decided to develop it ourselves and put together
a development group with some consultants to make sure the unfamiliar
elements were handled by experts."
They also
continued to shop around the hotel idea, including to some old
buddies at a reorganizing Westin franchisee. Enter Starwood Hotel
and Resorts Worldwide. "We now have a fine hotel firm in
the Westin," Baron says. "It's their first in the region,
and they wanted to be downtown."
The hotel
bound by Clark, Eighth, Ninth, and Spruce Streets is a top of
the line affair, according to McCormack Baron. The $75 million
project brings the aggregate value of deals in which the development
firm has been involved to roughly $1 billion, Baron says.
Founded in
1973, McCormack Baron's more than 80 development projects nationwide
comprise 11,000 residential units-predominantly in central cities,
mixing single-family homes with both market-rate and subsidized
rental properties.
Among McCormack
Baron's other local projects are Westminster Place, in the district
where the peripatetics of an ancient profession once strolled,
and which now includes stand-up retail; converting the old Falstaff
brewery into housing; and replacing the Vaughn housing projects
with the Residences at Murphy Park.
Other major
developments in cities from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to Atlanta contribute
credibility to the company's claim as the premier for-profit rehab
company in the U.S. The portfolio is noticeably oriented towards
residential. In Kansas City, though, along with 1,000 residential
units, McCormack Baron included 52,000 square feet of new office
development in the Quality Hill development.
So in contemplating
the commercial potential of a Cupples Station reclamation, Baron
says, "It's not an unknown. We're applying old lessons to
a new undertaking. We've done as much historic rehab as any firm.
Converting warehouses is not new."
The preponderance
of McCormack Baron's experience in housing didn't deter Bank of
America from jumping into the project to play the central financial
role in the commercial development.
Mary Campbell,
market executive for the Community Development Bank at Bank of
America says her outfit was uniquely qualified to do so: "Given
our size and resources and expertise, this is exactly the kind
of project that we could, and should, undertake downtown."
After all,
she points out, "We are a bank subsidiary whose business
is to buy, own and develop real estate. And we have access to
capital."
Moreover,
she continues, Bank of America central banking group president
David Darnell "decided to take a leadership role and pledged
$100 million to help spur development of downtown St. Louis. We
issued a challenge: 'We're ready to lend and invest. We want other
companies to do the same thing.'"
At about
the same time, Campbell says, Blue Cross Blue Shield was getting
ready to unload the property.
"There
were other parties interested in buying the land who wouldn't
necessarily have had the civic purpose in mind," she says.
"Developing Cupples Station was part of putting our money
where our mouth was. We were thinking very hard about a catalytic
project to take on. We just had to look out our window and it
became very clear where our help was needed."
Bank of America
executives enjoy a great view of Cupples Station from the conference
room in their building located at 800 market, she says. But itÕs
not just bankers' views that count. "It's a critical corridor.
Tens of thousands of cars come off those ramps every day. If it's
a vibrant location, imagine how that affects people's first impressions
of downtown."
Especially
the southern edge. Bank of America bought the 12 acres (minus
where the highway ramps run) in December 1998 from Blue Cross
Blue Shield "for $6.7 million for acquisition, due diligence
and holding costs to date [taxes, insurance]," Campbell says.
"Virtually
simultaneously," she continues, "we transferred ownership
of the Westin parcel to the Sun America-McCormack Baron partnership."
Complementing Bank of America's investment, Firstar Bank purchased
state historic-preservation income-tax credits, which helped raise
equity for the hotel.
In an interview
with the Wall Street Journal in December 1999, Baron says, the
Cupples renovation "would never happen without the state
historic tax credits." At 25 percent of eligible rehab costs,
and in conjunction with 20 percent federal historic tax credits,
he says, "They make large scale, historic renovation projects
feasible."
Backing from
a financial behemoth like Bank of America and its $642 billion
in assets on December 31, 2000, helps keep the series of phases
of a large scale development on track, too.
"Cupples
Development LLC started as a partnership between Banc of America
Community Development Corporation and McCormack Baron," Campbell
explains. "We're the managing member of that group; it's
the entity that spun off the two blocks to Sun America and McCormack
Baron. Community Development LLC still owns the remaining three
blocks.
"Each
portion of the development gets spun out of Cupples Development
LLC to a separate partnership," she continues. "It's
a fairly standard mechanism for a large scale redevelopment area."
A new 800-car,
$14 million parking structure is under way, and "a partnership
controlled by Banc of America CDC is developer and owner of Building
Nine," she says of a warehouse slated for reincarnation as
office space.
Development
of Building Nine will run around $40 million and will commence
this summer, Baron says. A larger, 450,000-square-foot, $95 million
office complex, undertaken by Banc of America CDC and McCormack
Baron will feature a soaring glass atrium, nine stories high (120
feet), joining four separate buildings. Space between the two
rehabs and two new look-alikes will form a perpendicular criss-cross.
The goal for the space is to feel like an Italian town square.
Baron says,
"The most important part of the project will be the public
perception of the area and the quality of the overall design.
Once the region understands that a new community has emerged,
there will be an important change of attitude about being part
of downtown and the business group that will use these facilities."
Architect
Trivers, who describes his firm's role in the Cupples Station
development as "primarily to identify conceptual potential
of properties," says architectural firm Booth-Hanson out
of Chicago is leading the team responsible for the 2-by-2 project:
"They're easy to work with, and it's clear they know what
they're doing."
Judging from
tribulations Trivers' firm met in the Westin project, they had
better.
"Probably
the most difficult aspect of dealing with these historic buildings
is the structural conditions you encounter," he says.
"For
example, we identified early on some major structural settlement
had occurred in the building at Ninth and Spruce. After some investigation
[digging test pits], we found that the foundation system was being
supported on wood piles. The top portion had begun to rot because
the water table rises and falls below grade: wood under water
can last forever. But when it gets wet and dry and wet, eventually
it rots."
Easy solution?
No way. "We had to drill piers 60 feet to bedrock every six
feet around the perimeter and interior of the building to support
it on an entirely new foundation system," Trivers says.
Trivers expects
continuing challenges throughout the project "because every
beam and column and wall connection needs to be investigated for
structural integrity."
Maintaining
the historic character of the exteriors is the whole reason for
the extra efforts like those Trivers described, and it's essential
to qualify for the historic tax credits. On the Westin's interior,
however, Trivers points out, "We have a 21st century architecture
and design, the latest communications and Internet technologies,
mechanical and electrical systems. There's this great contrast.
"To
keep all of this working together, within an overall design concept
that makes sense and is attractiveÉit's a three-dimensional
puzzle, at least."
In Baron's
view, "the biggest challenge to the project has been, and
will continue to be, to convince people that restoring historic
property can yield a product that is Class A by anyone's definition:
residential or commercial."
Trivers also
wants people to appreciate these legacies in brick. "It would
be terrible to tear down these old buildings to make parking lots.
It would be convenient to park but there'd be nothing to go to.
Part of what gives St. Louis its character is its historic buildings.
If we destroy those, we'll lose our competitive edge and become
no different from Dallas, Houston or Atlanta.
"That
unique architectural experience can be a backbone for tourism
and development," he says.
While Baron
says he has enjoyed the design challenges, and averred that open
and public spaces are among the most important features in central
city redevelopments, he wouldn't name a favorite component or
building of the masterplan. What excites him is "taking part
in [Cupples Station's] history a hundred years later. It's extraordinary."
The 20 warehouses
that once stood at Cupples Station were the brainchild of Robert
Brookings, the partner of Samuel Cupples. The structures, built
between 1894 and 1917 in the area bound by Seventh, Eleventh,
Clark and Poplar took advantage of the railroad tracks that connected
to all the major lines through the Eads Bridge Tunnel at Eighth
and Spruce. (Not a bad place to run a Metro, either.) The new
Westin overlooks the MetroLink station.
These tracks
were laid in an area that had been Chouteau's Pond, the result
of a grist mill dam.
With all
the loading, unloading, handling and paperwork for two million
square feet worth of freight done at one location, Cupples Station
was a model of operational efficiency.
"This
is not hyperbole," Baron says. "These guys were among
the most innovative entrepreneurs in the country at that time."
Looking forward,
Baron says, "I envision Cupples will be part of a major transition
of the southern part of downtown that will include the new ballpark
and village as well as the reintroduction of Chouteau's Pond."
What striking
historical symmetry that would offer: With the draining of the
original Chouteau's Pond in 1852, railroads installed tracks,
which prompted Brookings and Cupples to build warehouses.
A new pond
would make rehabbed warehouses more vibrant by stitching together
half a dozen additional mixed-use developments that McCormack
Baron and HOK Planning Group have on their drawing boards: a technology
park, residential high rises, retail, recreational and other commercial
development. In other words, to augment the redevelopment of Cupples
Station warehouses, existing railroad tracks would be replaced
by Chouteau's Pond.
Kevin Kipp
runs Bubble Communications, a creative services and community
relations firm in St. Charles.
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