St. Louis City SC, our upcoming major league soccer team presently building a sprawling campus in Downtown West, is planning to construct a 4-story parking garage on the 1900 block of Olive Street. The site was previously occupied by a series of commercial buildings, which were demolished last year after fierce opposition from preservationists and urbanists alike.
The 4-story garage, which plans specify as being built in a cast in place style, would be clad in a metal mesh and feature "City Red" accenting on the exterior processional stairs and viewing balcony. Plans do not show the garage including any retail or restaurant space on the ground floor, but a garage office is planned on the 19th street side. Plans specify the garage being designed and built to accommodate future usages as well as a solar array on the top level, which would allow the garage/building to be "net zero". The developer is listed as "Pitch314", an affiliate of St. Louis City SC. Minneapolis-based Snow|Kreilich, the firm also behind other components of the City SC district, is the architect. St. Louis-based Tarlton is the contractor and currently has the project out for bid.
CityScene STL shared the renderings on Twitter yesterday evening after being tipped off by a follower about the garage. Twitter erupted in anger at City SC for their apparent walk back on a promise to not build any more parking in Downtown West, and then later shifted that statement to say, "not build just a parking garage". Others on Twitter, and a few in a private Facebook group, made it clear that they were fond of the design but wished that it included at least one retail space.
The plan for a parking garage on this site has been assumed by many on social media after last year's demolition of the buildings on this block. It wasn't until earlier this week when NextSTL alerted social media that a building permit, worth $19.7 million, was applied for to build a parking garage on this site. Some had assumed that the garage would at least include retail space, or be built to support additional usages on top if a path to build upward was chosen in the future. Construction should commence in September and wrap up in December 2022.
The garage is the sixth component of City SC's several hundred million dollar Downtown West District. Other components include the Stadium, Team Store/Pavilion, Practice/Training Fields and Building, and the Team HQ. A large majority of the district is built where the former 22nd Street interchange was, which was a remnant of the never-built Highway 755 (North-South Distributor).
St. Louis City SC is currently set to begin playing in the MLS in March 2023.
