ST. LOUIS — With two phases of Ballpark Village already complete, the St. Louis Cardinals are starting to look ahead to the mixed-use district’s future.
“I do think there’s more to do,” Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III said Friday.
DeWitt shed light on plans for the next phase of Ballpark Village during a conversation Friday with St. Louis Business Journal Editor Erik Siemers at the Missouri Economic Development Finance Association’s annual conference, held at Ballpark Village's Live! By Loews hotel. DeWitt also discussed the Cardinals’ recent managerial change, a potential Major League Baseball work stoppage and the future of his family’s ownership of the franchise.
While DeWitt said a timeline for Ballpark Village’s third phase is unknown and that the potential project — which would be located on three surface parking lots north of the current development — is in its early planning stages. But he suggested the conceptual vision of what might be located on the district’s remaining developable land is starting to be pieced together. He said the Cardinals and development partner Cordish will consider that real estate for additional residential, office and retail development.
“Right now, it kind of looks like residential is leading that competition,” DeWitt said.
DeWitt is bullish on the project’s ability to facilitate additional apartments given the 100% occupancy of Ballpark Village’s 29-story One Cardinal Way tower, which opened in 2020 with the district’s $260 million phase two expansion.
“Presumably, we could do another tower or two,” he said.
DeWitt said filling out the remaining real estate at Ballpark Village could take roughly three to six years. While the organization has no plans at the moment beyond a third phase, he left open the possibility of the Cardinals sometime in the future buying additional land around Busch Stadium and Ballpark Village. However, DeWitt’s hopeful other developers will be drawn to the area to make their own bets on downtown.
“What I’d love to be in is a situation where we’re bidding against a stalking horse (developer) who wants to do another tower, but we’re not quite there yet,” DeWitt said.
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