STLife

STLife // Reasons to Cheer
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CHOUTEAU GREENWAY
Great Rivers Greenway’s ambitious
public-private project, getting a new
name in 2020 through community input,
aims to connect some of the city’s beloved
destinations, from Forest Park to Gateway
Arch National Park and from Fairground
Park to Tower Grove Park. Along
the way, this hiking, biking, and walking
trail will weave past some of the region’s
new hubs—Cortex, the Armory District,
City Foundry—as well as green spaces and
neighborhoods. Led by a diverse team of
artists and designers, the project aims to
transcend trails, highlighting the region’s
ecology, transforming unused urban
space into a public resource, and building
equity and economic growth.
SQUARE
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The mobile payment processing
company, founded by St. Louis
natives Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey,
will relocate its St. Louis offices
from Cortex to the 235,000-squarefoot
St. Louis Post-Dispatch building
downtown. The move will allow the tech
company to expand its local workforce
from approximately 500 to as many as
1,400. St. Louis-based firm CannonDesign
will remodel the space as “a cuttingedge
workplace equipped to help the
company expand its local workforce,
recruit and retain top local talent, and
fuel growth strategies.” And the company’s
founders are making their mark
elsewhere in St. Louis. In July, Dorsey
returned to his hometown with businessman
Bill Pulte to announce the St.
Louis Blight Authority, an initiative to
address vacant buildings in the city. And
McKelvey, who also co-founded Third
Degree Glass Factory and MADE Makerspace,
co-founded venture capital fir
Cultivation Capital and LaunchCode,
which has helped train and place more
than 1,500 skilled tech workers.
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CITY FOUNDRY
After visiting Krog Street Market
in Atlanta, the Lawrence Group’s
Steve Smith returned to St. Louis and
envisioned the perfect place for a
similar concept: the former Century
Electric site in Midtown. The $220
million project will span more than a
dozen food stalls, as well as Fassler
Hall, Punch Bowl Social, a multi-functional
event space from Butler’s Pantry,
and nearby office space. Fresh
Thyme grocery also plans to open a
location on site, and Alamo Drafthouse
Cinema will serve up food and
films—a sure draw for families, young
professionals, and students at nearby
Saint Louis University.
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NEXT NGA WEST
For decades, the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency fl w relatively
under the radar, situated in an
industrial section of Soulard on the
banks of the Mississippi. Then, in 2016,
NGA director Robert Cardillo announced
the agency had chosen North St. Louis
as the site for its new western headquarters,
a $1.7 billion project that marks the
largest federal investment project in St.
Louis history. Slated to open in 2025, the
97-acre campus in the St. Louis Place
neighborhood will be managed by the
NGA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
and the U.S. Air Force. It’s being hailed
as a potential game-changer for both
the city and the geospatial technology
community at large.
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ST. LOUIS AQUARIUM
Lodging Hospitality Management
has a knack for breathing new
life into iconic St. Louis spots. First,
they did it with Three Sixty at Hilton
St. Louis at the Ballpark, boasting one
of the best views in town. Then they
did it at The Cheshire, renovating the
historic hotel with some of the region’s
hottest eateries, and later Westport
Plaza, where Westport Social draws
workers from World Wide Technology’s
nearby headquarters. But their latest
20 Image courtesy of Great Rivers Greenway