Retailers opening 100,000 square feet downtown
St. Louis Business Journal March 9, 2007
By Lisa R. Brown, photo courtesy of Brian Cassidy
Chris Dougher and Rita Navarro will debut a 7,800-square-foot Good Works store downtown this summer.
Chris Dougher and Rita Navarro will debut a 7,800-square-foot Good Works store downtown this summer.
The list of restaurants and retailers coming downtown continues to grow and is expected to top 100,000 square feet of new space before the year is over. That amount dwarfs the retail and restaurant space that has opened downtown in each of the past four years.
In 2003, 21,000 square feet of new retail space opened downtown. In 2004, the amount more than doubled to 45,100 square feet. In 2005, the number dipped slightly, to 38,700 square feet, and last year, 66,000 square feet opened, according to the Downtown St. Louis Partnership. In 2007, 101,100 square feet of new retail and restaurant space will open.
One of the highest profile new lease signings is "fifteen on locust," a steak restaurant, lounge and banquet facility owned by Cardinals player Jim Edmonds and business partner Mark Winfield. Fifteen is set to open this summer in 16,000 square feet at 1900 Locust St. Winfield said the development cost will total $3.8 million, and the building will include 2,300 square feet of office space.
Other retailers who've committed to large spaces downtown are English Living and Good Works. Furniture store Good Works will open this summer in 7,800 square feet on the ground floor of the Bankers Lofts at Ninth Street and Washington Avenue. Good Works' owners, Chris Dougher and Rita Navarro, have operated a location in University City for nearly 20 years. Their current location, at 6323 Delmar, will remain open, but the new downtown store will allow Good Works to expand its product offerings, Dougher said.
The downtown Good Works store will be nearly twice the size of its existing store. "We offer urban, eclectic and affordable (furniture)," Dougher said. "There's just a lot of product out there that we don't have space to show."
Good Works isn't the only retailer located in St. Louis County to look downtown for opportunities. English Living, a specialty furniture store, signed a five-year lease for 17,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Ely Walker Building at 1520 Washington. English Living, which has a store at 14217 Manchester Road, will open the downtown store in June.
Attracting furniture and home furnishings stores was a key aspect of a downtown retail recruitment strategy, according to Jim Cloar, president and chief executive of the Downtown St. Louis Partnership. "Our list of targeted retailers for the first phase was to go after these kinds of stores and to locate them along Washington Avenue, 11th and 10th. The thinking was that they would require less buildout and would have both a natural market and perceptual link to loft living."
Dougher cited the growing residential population as a primary driver in making the decision to locate a new store downtown. "The downtown environment seems like it's just really happening," she said. "The products that we have are ideal for lofts."
The other retailers that have signed new leases downtown are the Fitness Factory, opening this spring in 18,000 square feet of space at 1314 Washington; Kram/Groove Theory, a fashion accessories store that opened March 1 in 1,000 square feet at 818 Olive St. on the ground floor of the Paul Brown Building; and women's apparel store Masulla's, which opened in 800 square feet of space at 1301 Washington in mid-February.
In addition to fifteen, which is the largest new restaurant to announce plans to locate downtown, Ted Geiger is opening a new 8,800-square-foot J. Buck's restaurant at 1000 Clark St. in Cupples Station this summer, and Simply Fondue is opening at 1627 Locust St. in March. Other restaurants set to open this summer are Bridge and Tunnel Pizza, at 1235 Washington; Franco Latino, at 1511 Washington; Mizu, at 1015 Washington; and Tigin, at 333 Washington.
Furniture store Niche is moving from 2,800 square feet on Washington Avenue to 5,000 square feet in the Marquette Building this summer, and restaurant Mosaic is moving to 3,500 square feet in the Curlee Building at 1001 Washington. Mosaic's existing location at 1101 Lucas Ave. will be converted to a cocktail lounge.
