ST. LOUIS — The new St. Louis CITY SC soccer stadium has created a new neighborhood in St. Louis.
CityPark is also making soccer fans out of real estate developers.
City Commons is the name of the neighborhood. It cropped up after developers saw they had something to rally around and anchor the area – a new MLS stadium.
Jassen Johnson is business development partner with Tower Real Estate Group and Renaissance Development Associates.
“I will tell you in 2002 when I did my first property, 3016 Locust," said Johnson. "It was completely boarded up and there were abandoned cars in the streets."
More than 20 years later, Johnson said his firms have developed more than 70 buildings in the neighborhood. Johnson said they maintain a 97% occupancy level in all of their residential developments in Downtown West.
The more exciting statistic, from a developer’s standpoint, is that for probably 12 years of his career downtown, Johnson says developers got stuck on $12 per square foot on commercial rental rates. Then about three years ago, the damn broke and now they’re at $19-25 dollars a square foot. It’s because of NGA – the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, north of downtown, but more importantly, the new CityPark soccer stadium along Market across from Union Station.
“We basically went from $12, $14, $16, $19 per square foot, and now our restaurant stuff is upwards of mid- to high-twenties.”
“The key to success,” said Johnson. “Is when you can say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go down to City Commons and the MLS Stadium,’ and people can immediately identify, that’s where XYZ is, that’s where Schlafly is, that’s where these other things are. That’s success.”
Drea Ranek is co-owner of Lusso, makers of luxury women’s fan gear for sports teams all over the country. They’ve been downtown for a year and in City Commons for six months.
Ranek said, “I love driving down Market Street and seeing The Wheel on one side and the soccer stadium on the other side, and the Arch in the backdrop with Union Station. It just really makes it look like a beautiful cityscape.”
Johnson said Tower and his other firm – Renaissance Development Associates, which caters to creatives – maintain a nearly 98% occupancy rate in residential developments here.
He showed 5 On Your Side some property projects in progress on Locust.
“Blue Jay Brewing will be the orange building,” he said. “Nexus is the first floor of the white building. Anita’s Café is here on the corner. We’ve got Kain Tayo which is actually open. You can see their sign, here.”
Johnson said within five years, his firm should be able to reach the same level of success in City Commons that it took 20 years to reach, in the area west of Jefferson. When Tower Real Estate brings in clients from out of town, they take them on a Forest Park-to-the-Arch tour, which includes Mid-Town Alley, Grand Center and the Central West End.
Now they’ll have a new neighborhood to tell prospective clients about – City Commons.
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