The area around Madison and Monroe, for a while now, has seemed to be the hotbed for development in Kirkwood. As far back as 2004, with the construction of the massive Kirkwood Plaza development, all the way through to today with the development of the Hutton, the final of Savoy's three condo developments along Madison,… Continue reading The Birth of Downtown North
Update 01/07/2021: The Starbucks was unanimously voted down upon first reading. I'll keep you updated if Starbucks comes back to the drawing board as I suspect they will. Previous Story: First of all, I just want to say sorry for going AWOL for a couple months. The end of the semester got sort of busy… Continue reading The Starbucks Project is Really Bad, Actually.
Update 11/20/2020 Last night, a proposal recently redubbed "The Hutton", Savoy's twelve unit condominium proposal for 134-138 West Madison was approved 6-1. Pitched as the"last of it's kind" by Savoy, this project completes their rapid transformation of this block long stretch that up until very recently had been dominated by small businesses located in small… Continue reading The Hutton
Well, it's been a while, but we finally once again have news on the development front. Next week, after more than a three month layoff, Kirkwood's Planning & Zoning Committee will meet for double session: once on Tuesday and once on Wednesday. They will have a jam-packed agenda to take on when they do so.… Continue reading Starbucks, Flats, and Banks, Oh My!
Manchester Road is the chicken and the egg problem at a Kirkwood-sized scale. New developments are built as auto-centric and car oriented because Manchester accommodates nothing else, and the Manchester corridor accommodates nothing else because everything that is built along it is built in an auto-centric way. If Manchester is to ever improve, if the… Continue reading Manchester Road
A new 125-unit, mixed-use, independent living project is in the works for 300-350 N. Kirkwood Road, a site currently occupied by Commerce Bank and its parking lot. Sound familiar? No, this is not the Kirkwood Flats/UMB Bank proposal, (that one would be across the street), but rather a brand new project in what is turning… Continue reading 125 Apartments Coming to Commerce Bank Site?
Update 07/07/2020: Construction on the site is underway and we've gotten our first glimpse of what the finished form of the product will look like. Turns out it basically looks like every other house in Kirkwood, just closer together and without a big garage in front. See everybody, building more homes can be painless! Rendering… Continue reading The Townes at Geyer Grove
Update 08/19/2021 After receiving first reading approval on a 5-2 vote, Altus used up almost all of their year-long window to submit their final plans. That wait is finally over. At tonight's Planning & Zoning meeting, they will present the fruits of that process, and pending a pro-forma second reading approval by City Council, begin… Continue reading The James (formerly the Kirkwood Flats)
A new development is nearing completion in Meacham Park at the corner of Big Bend and S. Fillmore (10505 Big Bend Blvd). While the 3-4 unit strip mall's exterior has been completed, its interior has a way to go before it will be ready for any businesses to move in. Unfortunately there seems to be… Continue reading Meacham Park & Urbanism: A Tenuous Affair
Meramec Community College's large campus and voluminous student traffic makes for a challenging environment to craft a more walkable neighborhood. With that being said, however, there are steps that can be taken in both the short-term an the long-term to ensure that this stretch of Geyer is not only walkable for the residences that sit… Continue reading College Town
