St. Louis relies on gaming and entertainment projects to revitalize city’s core and bring tourists back to the historic riverfront district
By Bruce Buckley
The $495-million Lumiere Place casino and hotel in downtown St. Louis will add to the city’s entertainment options within sight of the arch.
Photo by Arteafa Photos Ltd
Development in and around St. Louis is a sure bet these days. Las Vegas gaming company Pinnacle Entertainment is transforming a vacant 7.3-acre railyard along the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis into a $495-million world-class casino and hotel complex.
The project, dubbed Lumiere Place, sits in the shadow of the 630-ft-tall Gateway Arch and neighbors the 66,000-seat Edward Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams football team.
Pinnacle is among a group of developers that have poured billions of dollars into the St. Louis metropolitan area for entertainment projects. Significant tax incentives in recent years have helped restore thousands of historic residences and led to the conversion of vacant office buildings into condominiums, which revitalized many once-blighted areas of the city.
Now, a wave of casinos, sports venues and entertainment districts are springing up to serve the new influx of residents and lure more tourism dollars to the region.
McCarthy Building Cos., based in St. Louis, broke ground on Lumiere Place in September 2005. When completed in late 2007, the project will include a single-level, 75,000-sq-ft casino, 22,000 sq ft of convention space, a refurbished 297-room Embassy Suites hotel and a 24-story, 200-room, five-star hotel with a 10,000-sq-ft spa, two restaurants and an outdoor pool area that overlooks the arch.
Ameristar Casino is building a $265 million expansion in St. Charles, just northwest of St. Louis.
“What has driven some of the expenditures by Pinnacle and others is the new condos and the urban-renewal program,” says Derek Glanvill, McCarthy’s president and COO. “We’re seeing as much work in St. Louis as we ever have. It’s rewarding to have so much work near our headquarters.”
With Lumiere Place speeding toward completion, Pinnacle is focusing its next efforts on its River City Casino & Hotel project in the Lemay community. The area, which sits on the confluence of the Mississippi and the River des Peres, was ravaged by floods in the early 1990s, and many of its largely industrial sites have since been abandoned. Pinnacle is revitalizing an 87-acre site that housed a lead-paint factory.
The $375-million development will include a 90,000-sq-ft casino, 100-room hotel, spa, restaurants, bowling alley, movie theater, indoor ice rink, park with athletic fields, hatch-shell entertainment venue and 5,200-space parking garage.
A later phase is planned to include a retail center of approximately 280,000 sq ft. Pinnacle also plans to build a multimillion-dollar community center in Lemay. Extensive sitework and environmental remediation began in late 2005 and is still under way. A general contractor has not been announced for the project, which is scheduled for completion in late 2008.
SLU Capital Program Reaches Higher Ground
For decades, St. Louis University has sparked new development in the city’s midtown area near the Grand Center arts district. After $840 million in expansions, improvements and enhancements over the last 20 years, the Jesuit school is undertaking its most ambitious construction effort ever.
SLU is investing $161 million toward the two largest construction projects in its 189-year history: Chaifetz Arena and the Edward A. Doisy Research Center. Locally based Clayco has been contracted to build both projects.
“These two significant projects again show St. Louis University’s commitment to the future of midtown St. Louis,” says SLU spokesman Clayton Berry.
The $80.5-million, 269,631-sq-ft Chaifetz Arena will be the new home of the St. Louis University Billikens men’s and women’s basketball teams and will host other university teams and events. The arena, designed by Mackey Mitchell Associates of St. Louis and Sink Combs Dethlefs of Denver, will include a two-court practice facility, athletic offices, locker rooms and training facilities.
In the main 10,600-seat arena, crews will construct 12 private suites, four party rooms, a Billiken Club athletics boosters’ area and other amenities. More than 1,000 tons of steel will be used to create the structure. The exterior will be a mix of brick, which will blend with the existing campus, as well as a glass curtain wall to utilize natural light. The project broke ground in August 2006 and is scheduled to open in March 2008.
While sports teams battle it out at Chaifetz Arena, researchers will be taking on much different foes at the new Edward A. Doisy Research Center. The new research center will enable SLU scientists to make discoveries in key areas such as cancer, liver disease, heart and lung disease, aging and brain disease, and vaccine development. The $80.5-million project includes $67.5 million in new facilities and $13 million in renovations.
The new facility includes a 10-story tower at the north end of the site with the first two floors extending toward the south and connecting in a covered walkway to the SLU School of Medicine. The 206,000-sq-ft building will feature a contemporary design of steel, brick and glass on the exterior.
The first floor will include the lobby, security desk and Clinical Core Lab facility. Floors two through eight will be research floors with flexible, modular laboratories on the south and east sides, to maximize natural light. Offices will be located on the north side of the building.
Each of these floors will include equipment rooms, dark rooms, cold rooms and tissue culture rooms. The ninth floor will house mechanical equipment and a large conference room.
Clayco has signed a safety partnership with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on both projects to promote higher safety standards during the buildings’ construction. As part of the public-private partnership, Clayco’s performance objective is to have incident and injury rates below the industry standard.
Including the two St. Louis University projects, only six such partnerships have been implemented in the St. Louis metro area. Clayco also has a similar agreement for its Casino Queen project in East St. Louis, Ill.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Metropolitan St. Louis area has seen billions of dollars in new transportation projects break ground recently, including some of the largest in the state’s history.
The Missouri Dept. of Transportation says it had its largest construction season ever in 2006, including more than 150 new highway project starts in the St. Louis area.
Gateway Constructors got rolling in January 2006 on the new $535-million Interstate 64 reconstruction project, the largest project in MoDOT history and the first design-build project contracted with the department, MoDOT says.
Crews will reconstruct pavement, bridges and 12 interchanges on a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 64 from west of Spoede Road to east of Kingshighway Boulevard, including a new interchange between I-64 and I-170. One lane will be added in each direction from west of Spoede Road to I-170. The project is scheduled to open to traffic by the end of 2009, with all work completed by July 2010.
The Gateway Constructors team is led by Granite Construction Co., Watsonville, Calif., with local team members Fred Weber Inc., Creve Coeur, and Millstone-Bangert Inc., St. Charles. Parsons Transportation Group, Pasadena, Calif., and San Francisco-based URS Corp. round out the design team.
Millstone-Bangert also is leading a $26-million interchange reconstruction project at I-170 and Olive Boulevard, which started in July. The project includes a new bridge over and reconstruction of portions of Olive Boulevard, as well as a realignment of I-170.
The project will ultimately create a single-point urban interchange. Original plans called for a September 2008 completion, but the project team expedited the work and is shooting for completion at the end of this year.
Those looking to stay off the roads have more options now, thanks to a new 8-mile extension of the MetroLink light-rail system. The $676-million Cross County Metrolink project included five facilities contracts, plus structures, tunnels, trackbeds, roadways, grading and draining.
Those contracts were split between four St. Louis-based companies—Tartlon Corp., McCarthy Building Co., KCI Construction and Fred Weber Inc.—which had two contracts. L.K. Comstock & Co. was the transit systems contractor.
The existing Forest Park station was renovated and a new railway was extended west to I-170, then south to Interstate 44. Nine new stations were built, finishing at the new Shrewsbury-Lansdowne I-44 station. The combined program started in 2003 and completed in 2006.
Air-traffic delays at Lambert St. Louis International Airport have been eased, thanks to the completion in April 2006 of a $1.1-billion expansion, the largest capital improvement project in St. Louis history. The expansion included 115 projects and required more than 550 design and construction consultants and contractors, mostly based in the St. Louis area. The centerpiece of the expansion, which began in July 2001, was a 9,000-ft runway and two 9,000-ft taxiways.
The first traffic tunnel in Missouri was built as part of the project to create a new route for Lindbergh Boulevard. Enough soil was moved to create a 6 x 6- ft pile stretching from the Mississippi River to Seattle.
STILL TRUE BLUE
Several major manufacturing and industrial process projects are under way or in the works at the edge of the St. Louis region.
St. Genevieve County, Mo., will be home to the largest single-line cement plant in the world by 2009, according to owner Holcim Inc., Waltham, Mass. MC Industrial of St. Louis, an independent McCarthy Building company, is constructing the $905-million plant for Holcim on a 4,000-acre site along the Mississippi River.
The project, which broke ground in March 2006, includes the construction of 13 slip-formed silos. In December, MC Industrial and design-build joint venture partner T.E. Ibberson, Minneapolis, began work on the first two silos. Concrete was poured around the clock for 16 days at a rate of 33 yd per hour until all 6,015 yd were poured for the two 60-ft-dia, 275-ft-high silos.
In February and March, work on two 150-ft-dia, 207-ft-high clinker silos began. The remaining silos include eight 275-ft-high, 79-ft-dia inverted cone silos with the capacity to store 260,000 tons of cement, and one 40-ft-dia, 207-ft-high reject silo.
In all, MC Industrial will pour and place more than 90,000 cu yd of concrete to build the silos. Completion is scheduled for February.
St. Louis also is getting its share of investment in the growing ethanol market. MC Industrial is building a $93-million ethanol plant for Center Ethanol Co. in Sauget, Ill., just southeast of the city. MC Industrial with T.E. Ibberson and Williamsburg, Va.-based Delta-T Corp. broke ground on the 54-million-gallon plant in October. Completion is expected by the end of the year.
“St. Louis has been big in industrial in the past, but went through some flat years,” says Derek Glanvill, president and COO of McCarthy Building Cos. “Now it’s spiking again.”
Among the big manufacturing projects on the horizon is a planned $1-billion upgrade and expansion of the Chrysler plant in Fenton, Mo. Chrysler committed to the plan in late 2005 but has not yet selected a general contractor for the job.
Chrysler announced that the work would proceed in several phases in the coming years. The expansion could lead to other projects in the area, as more Chrysler suppliers move in to service the expanded plant, says the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association.
As part of the development, a one-mile-long, four-lane road is being built, that will create access to the casino as well as neighboring sites that could be developed in the future. Levees are also in the works to help prevent future floods.
Other developers also are working on gaming projects in the St. Louis area. Ameristar Casinos of Las Vegas is expanding its casino in St. Charles, northwest of the city, with a $240-million project that emulates the flavor of the historic town.
Walton Construction of St. Louis is overseeing the project, highlighted by a 25-story, 400-room hotel that topped out in April. The hotel will feature all-suite rooms, 55,000 sq ft of meeting and banquet space, a 7,000-sq-ft day spa, workout facility and a 2,350-space parking garage.
The design plays off the turn-of-the-century historic architecture seen on St. Charles’ historic Main Street, including aged brick and ornamental cast moldings on the hotel tower. The hotel entrance features an expansive glass-covered walkway and a grand canopy hand-forged from custom ironwork and glass.
The casino’s design, led by Marnell Corrao Associates, Las Vegas, takes its cue from Frank Lloyd Wright, incorporating open space with contemporary ambiance. A contrasting grid of soffits and ceiling tiles will highlight its curved form, while a large stained-glass window will fill the main pathway with light and color. Pinnacle also has plans to develop a $50-million residential and retail district in the surrounding area.
“Gaming companies see St. Louis as a viable market for them,” says Dan Frisbee, executive vice president of Walton Construction. “There is a definite spirit of revival around St. Louis.”
Walton completed an $8.7-million soil and site improvement project on the 52-acre site in November 2005 and, in September 2006, delivered a 65,000-sq-ft conference and meeting center at the casino. The $14-million project includes two ballrooms, five meeting rooms and an executive board room that provide 19,200 sq ft of combined meeting space.
Across the Mississippi in East St. Louis, a St. Louis-based joint venture of Clayco and Legacy Building Group is helping bring the Casino Queen gambling facility into safe waters. The $60-million “boat in a moat” casino will replace the existing casino moored on the river.
The 236,000-sq-ft facility is a two-level, tilt-up concrete building with 22-ft-high ceilings that will house a 38,000-sq-ft gaming floor, buffet restaurant, café, steakhouse, VIP lounge and stage bar. The project is scheduled for completion this summer.
For the gaming area foundation, crews placed special 4 x 20-ft, about-3 in.-thick foam sheets and stacked them 6 ft high over the entire footprint. Concrete almost 1 ft thick was poured and an under-floor duct system installed, followed by more poured concrete to create the gaming floor. Water has been added to the excavated basin, allowing the gaming area to “float in its moat.”
With major entertainment facilities soon to break onto the scene, St. Louis contractors have been busy with other development. Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis, in association with Kwame Building Group of St. Louis, led a design-build to create the new $270-million Busch Stadium last year. Clayco served as project manager and cost and constructibility consultant. The stadium, home to the St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team, was completed for opening day April 2006.
Leveraging
The project could foster revitalization efforts in the city. The Cordish Co. of Baltimore is developing plans for Ballpark Village, a $650-million new entertainment and lifestyle district that would be built next to Busch Stadium in the footprint of the old stadium.
Project plans call for approximately 450,000 sq ft of retail and entertainment space, 1,200 residential units, 300,000 sq ft of office and 2,000 parking spaces. HOK of St. Louis designed the district.
Approvals for the project are still in the works, but developers hope to have the project well under way in summer 2009, when Busch Stadium will host baseball’s All-Star Game.
“St. Louis County and the city were in favor of Busch Stadium as a means of generating renovation in downtown St. Louis,” says Granville White, vice president of operations at Kwame Building Group. “The Cardinals play 80 games per season, and they are pretty much sold out, even in bad years. There’s a lot of vacation activity generated by the ballpark.”
Likewise, other entertainment districts are under consideration near the home of the St. Louis Rams. Clayco was selected as construction manager of a $300-million, 18-acre project dubbed the Bottle District. The seven-block area, located across the street from Edward Jones Dome, would include a mix of restaurants, retail shops, bars, clubs and condominiums.
Len Toenjes, president of AGC St. Louis, says he expects the current crop of entertainment projects in St. Louis to be followed by improvements that will better connect the city’s emerging neighborhoods and landmarks.
“Five years ago, you didn’t have the residential or the lofts or the streetscapes that you see now,” he adds. “That was the first phase. Now you see the second phase of entertainment centers coming up. Next, we’ll see the city address more of the infrastructure that connects the riverfront to the downtown."
