Proximity to downtown St. Louis
You know it’s winter in St. Louis when it’s sunny and warm. A good opportunity to take a stroll along Broadway on the North Riverfront. It’s so obvious, it’s painful: this area has all the attributes to become Mainstreet USA, without the mouse. Quality architecture, proximity to downtown, and new infrastructure being built to the north and west.
Arch views
Downtown's central business district
Ready for rehab?
New intersection Broadway & Cass Avenue
New Cass Bridge over I-70
Cass Avenue & Broadway
A new Cass Avenue Bridge has been recently completed, as well as a new intersection at Cass and Broadway. One of the few tenants on this stretch is the biker bar Shady Jack’s Saloon, which has been located here since 2005.
From their website:
Jack opened Shady Jack’s Saloon in Downtown, St. Louis, Missouri USA in September 2005. Jack is very family oriented and has most of his family also working here. The family takes pride in this business and if you’ve ever been here you’re sure to have met one of them.
Shady Jack’s is a biker accommodating bar but you don’t have to be biker to appreciate and enjoy yourself here. We encourage everyone to stop in. We offer Great food, awesome service, and a fun time. Come in for Lunch, we have daily lunch specials or just come in after work for our Happy Hour and evening Specials! We have a beautiful staff that you have to see and will treat you right!
New Mississippi River Bridge Approach
The New Mississippi River Bridge, which will be completed in 2014, adds another access point to North Broadway. Traffic from Illinois to downtown St. Louis will be funneled onto Cass Avenue, just a few blocks west. It will be easy to enter the area using the new Cass Bridge over I-70. By the same token, access to and from Tucker (via Cass) will greatly improve once the new North Tucker Boulevard project has been finished.
N. Broadway brimming with potential
At this point of our walk, one of the culprits, if not the main culprit of stalled development is clearly visible. Looking north (above), it’s easy to imagine North Broadway as a busy, fun area to visit or to reside in. Looking south (below) on the other hand, you encounter a wall, a barrier that cuts off the main artery to its neighbor and lifeblood, downtown St. Louis, as well as to the yet to be developed Bottle District.
The Great Barrier
Click to Enlarge
An overview of N. Broadway and the North Riverfront can be found on the map above. Note the new infrastructure to the north and west. To the east, notable structures begging for renovation include the Laclede Power Co. building, which Trailnet wants to develop into a bicycle station/restaurant at the beginning of the Riverfront Trail. This project has stalled. Another unique building is the Cotton Belt Freight Depot. Some incredible photos of this building can be found here.
Awaiting Renovation
Flood Wall Art
Cotton Belt Freight Depot
It’s easy to see the promise of the North Riverfront. Not only is it home to a stock of industrial buildings that can be renovated, but it has the potential to become a prime location in the metro area. With the new Mississippi Bridge under construction, and the Cass Avenue bridge recently completed, St. Louis is on the right track to ready the area for new development.
Now if we could only get rid of that pesky barrier.
Great to see all these wonderful photos taken on a sunny winter day. Don’t forget that Smoki-O’s is in that stretch of North Broadway, a place that gets raves for its barbeque, including barbequed spaghetti.
This year I will be renting a bus and taking people on a tour of the Near North Riverfront. Lots to talk about…
It’s a beautiful stretch of street, no matter how much disinvestment has occurred on or nearby it. Walking up N. Broadway, you don’t need much imagination to envision the popular north-south connector it could be.
It’s funny, considering all the dilapidation and demolition in the nearby Northside, I-70 actually may have served to save this little swath of river-adjacent building stock.
I still fear for this street though. With the new bridge landing coming in, I’m sure interested developers will be licking their lips to tear down and build new with third-tier hotel chains, 7-11′s and fast food joints.
Hope it isn’t too late to get an area-wide historic designation for N. Broadway between Carr and, say, St. Louis Avenue.
Could you imagine if instead of painted busses we had a trolley that ran something like this map? About 8 miles long, well worth the investment. Could you imagine the pub crawls?
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=russel+and+7th&daddr=broadway+at+cass+saint+louis+to:Crown+Candy+Kitchen,+Saint+Louis+Avenue,+St.+Louis,+MO+to:14+street+and+washington+avenue+saint+louis+to:russel+and+7th&hl=en&ll=38.629611,-90.195179&spn=0.078449,0.113983&sll=38.628695,-90.192465&sspn=0.07845,0.113983&geocode=FcAUTQIdlZqf-ik3hEd_obPYhzHnHrcGfDpR_Q%3BFYiXTQIdTd-f-imbUvxh2LLYhzFV6y4kQtioig%3BFQnGTQIdhrCf-iEvSKmNV__7sg%3BFbp7TQIdzamf-iktDMWNPbPYhzGuSk4Y_ifYJg%3BFcAUTQIdlZqf-ik3hEd_obPYhzHnHrcGfDpR_Q&vpsrc=0&mra=ltm&t=h&z=13
Very good overview of the Near North area of Downtown St. Louis. If only I were a venture capitalist! Early-adopters will reap the benefit from revitalizing this area.
As soon as the I-70 bridge goes up in 2014, this area is going to be much more frequently explored; a quick stop in downtown STL will be much easier for the travelling public.
The first unique restaurant / bar to make it’s name here could be the next “Fast Eddie’s” in the region.
My grandmother’s family ran a grocery on North Broadway until I-70 called for its demolition. If asked what happened to the store, she always responds, “The Highway took our store.”