Development, Housing, Parking

Lots Leveraged: RFP Issued for Downtown

Kirkwood has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for two prominent city-owned lots in Downtown Kirkwood according to a newsletter from Council member Liz Gibbons.

The two lots, 107-115 W Jefferson, and 125 E Jefferson are both zoned for B-2 General Business, the city’s most intensive use. The eastern lot sits right next to the popular Mission Taco Joint, while the western lot is the site vacated by the demolition of the Mel Bay Music Store in 2012.

While the RFP was issued on November 3rd, it has been given almost no publicity by the city, which instead chose to privately distribute the RFP to developers of interest. The deadline for submitting a proposal via the city’s procurement site is listed as 12/18 at 2:00 am, only one week from now.

The two lots should garner significant interest as long as developers have had sufficient time to organize a proposal (a prospect made much trickier by the current interest rates) and the off-street parking requirements don’t prove to be too costly a constraint.

The RFP also stipulates additional “preferences,” for what the proposals should include:

  1. Include a mixture of commercial and residential uses subject to the requirement for commercial frontage on the ground floor. 
  2. The development of the W Jefferson Parking Lot should incorporate at least the same amount of public parking that currently exists on the lot. (~74 spots)
  3. The development of the E Jefferson Parking Lot should incorporate at least the same amount of public parking that currently exists on the lot. (~70 spots)
  4. Include the installation of, and subscription cost to utilize, the City’s current parking monitoring system (“Park Kirkwood”) for the public parking spaces provided for within each development.
  5. Incorporate innovative building design that enhances the character of downtown Kirkwood.

Developments on these lots are required by the zoning code to feature ground-floor commercial use so (1) is essentially already mandated. And because mixed-use is mandated, buildings here can be up to 55 feet tall (~5 stories).

Numbers (2) and (3) are slight expansions of the minimum amount of parking required in the zoning code, which stipulates 1.5 off-street parking spots be provided per apartment/condo and 0.5 spaces be provided per hotel room in the downtown core, with additional spots required based on the type of commercial uses that are proposed: One space per every 100 sqft of restaurant space or one space per every 350 sqft of retail space is required, for example. If one of the lots was developed into a 20-room hotel with 12,000 sqft of retail on the bottom floor, the code would only require 44 parking spots, while the RFP is looking for 70+ spots to be included.

Number (4) is a requirement that any parking spots have to have the sensors that the City of Kirkwood had installed (for free, in a proof-of-concept by the Chesterfield-based company Fybr) in most of its downtown on-street parking spots. Those sensors then give real-time updates to the free “Park Kirkwood” app that tells you which spots are currently available. I covered that project in my article on the City’s parking lots which I already linked to, but here’s the direct link to an NPR interview with City Administrator Russ Hawes on the project. Now, this requirement is going to add to the cost of any project on these lots (which are already going to be at the margin in terms of financial feasibility for developers), so I don’t love it. But the requirement could be made significantly less burdensome if the city used this actually pretty cutting-edge technology it’s been gifted to implement dynamically-price parking (where the price would go down if lots of spots were available and up if very few were).

Number (5) is essentially a requirement that the project look good, which, fair enough.

The Bottom Line

Anyway, hopefully, more homes (or maybe even a boutique hotel?) will be coming to Downtown Kirkwood here soon, but less exciting possibilities remain in the mix. The city has long signaled that it would be interested in developing a new parking garage North of the railroad tracks, and a deal to offer both lots free of change to a developer interested in building on one of the lots and adding structured parking to the other remains a distinct possibility. This story is still developing and more will be added as it becomes known.

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Anonymous

Where are we going to park? Those lots are always full, especially on weekends and evenings. Are there plans for another parking garage anywhere?

Josiab

There is plenty of street parking, people just pick the lots as it’s the easiest solution. I use the one next to the library pretty regularly but worst case just park a block down the street if I had to

Anonymous

I wouldn’t say there is plenty of street parking. Kirkwood is hard-pressed for public parking, especially for those who can’t walk 3 blocks to get where they need to go.

Anonymous

Haha, is your comment for real or just trolling? 😆

Anonymous

The reason why I always say that there is always the bus because downtown Kirkwood is served by MetroBus route number 49 Lindbergh. Not many stops from that route but it does serve some. The bus stops at Adams, and it also stops near Pioneer Place (southbound) or by Jimmy John’s (northbound). It also stops at Woodbine, and there is a stop at Walgreens (southbound) and at Alpine shop (northbound). If you are flying here, and want to save some cash, instead of renting a car, get an adventure pass from the MetroLink ticket machine or a 7 day pass. Metro also offers a service called Call-a-Ride as they can take you right to where you want to go.

Anonymous

These parking lots should be left!

Anonymous

The RFP will require the developer to replace the existing parking spaces FYI. Approximately 73 spaces per lot. This will require some element of structured parking within the proposed development(s).

Anonymous

So where are they going to put 73 spaces public parking plus the 1.5 parking spaces per unit? Developers don’t make money off parking spots, they make money off residential square footage. So presumably they would want to build up. The B-2 height limit is 5 stories. What height do you think would be appropriate in these locations?

Anonymous

The way I am understanding this it IS in addition to. The RFP has a “City’s Preferences” section, and within it reads the following:

The development of the W Jefferson Parking Lot should incorporate at least the same amount of public parking that currently exists on the lot.
The development of the E Jefferson Parking Lot should incorporate at least the same amount of public parking that currently exists on the lot.

The key word here being “public” as that defines parking that is designated solely for public use as opposed to parking designated to added uses, ie: hotel, condos, retail, etc.

With this in mind a developer will likely need to build a below grade parking structure with surface parking and retail at grade with an additional 4 stories above that.

Anonymous

(Quote)…….”and a deal to offer both lots free of change to a developer interested in building on one of the lots and adding structured parking to the other remains a distinct possibility.”

What is meant by “free of change?”

Anonymous

I literally see the “shark tank” aka lot in question, five days a week. I call it the shark tank because people circle and circle hoping to find a spot. When they can’t, they park illegally at the apartments adjacent from it. One train at the station will leave Kirkwood Rd backed up making it dangerous and hard for emergency vehicles to get through. Alllllll of these ideas for growth and nothing to help the current residents and businesses with an already overwhelming parking issue. But let’s add more people right!?!

Anonymous

How is the City making any money off this. The West Jefferson lot cost the City $1.2 million. What’s in it for the residents?

Isn’t another name for dense economic development a slum? (Pruit Igoe).

Anonymous

Basically Kirkwood MO is getting more urbanized by the day so that people can have a little bit of an urban vibe and culture without dealing with the criminals and thugs that you see in the City of St.Louis. Also look at Carmel Indiana (an Indianapolis Suburb) see how they don’t have a parking issue and yet they’re getting more urban by the day.

Anonymous

The solution to fix this issue for both sides is build parking garages as well as underground parking so that Kirkwood MO can still have some Urban vibe and culture and still have enough room for parking.

Anonymous

Thats true my friend that is true.

Anonymous

Any updates on the replacement of those 2 parking lots in Downtown Kirkwood?

[…] in December, Kirkwood issued a Request for Proposals on the two city-owned parking lots on Jefferson Avenue, which ultimately yielded six separate proposals for each of the two lots. By […]