St. Louis, MO (KTRS) Construction of the second phase of Ballpark Village is underway.
The St. Louis Cardinals and The Cordish Companies broke ground Thursday morning on the $260-million project. The 700,000 square foot mixed-use expansion project will complete a full build-out of Clark Street, transforming it into one of the most exciting streets in all of professional sports, according to project officials.
“This second phase is more than seven times the scale of the first phase of Ballpark Village, bringing our total investment in new construction downtown to well over $750 million since 2005,” said Bill DeWitt III, President of the St. Louis Cardinals.
“By developing new housing, Class A office space, an upscale hotel, and high quality street level retail, we are truly putting the “Village” into Ballpark Village.” DeWitt added.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson was among the community leaders to speak at the groundbreaking ceremony. Krewson applauded those behind this effort.
“This is a tremendous project that will bring hundreds of new residents and over a thousand new jobs to our city,” said Krewson.
“I am excited to see a world-class hometown company like the Cardinals and their development partners, The Cordish Companies, expanding their investment in St. Louis and bringing the first new, Class-A office building downtown in nearly three decades.” Krewson added.
The Class-A Office Building will be anchored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and a new brand for St. Louis in the form of an upscale convention hotel, Live! By Loews.
Plans were also announced during the ceremony for a new lifestyle tenant to the expansion: Onelife Fitness. The state-of-the-art facility will occupy 31,000 square feet in the retail pavilion building directly north of the Busch II Infield and Event Plaza. The expansive space will span two levels and feature a two-story glass façade overlooking views of Ballpark Village and Busch Stadium.
“We are excited to open Onelife Fitness within one of the most impressive and highest profile sports-anchored, mixed-use projects in the country,” said Kirk Galiani, Co-Chairman, US Fitness Holdings, parent company of Onelife Fitness. “Our successful partnership with The Cordish Companies has allowed us the opportunity to extend our Midwest presence and to now team up with one of the great franchises of all professional sports, the St. Louis Cardinals, to bring something extremely special to Ballpark Village and downtown St. Louis.”
Die-hard Cardinals’ fans will also have the opportunity to reside in this baseball themed development. A 29-story luxury residential tower called One Cardinal Way is included in this expansion.
The entire project is expected to create 1,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.
The expansion project is targeted to begin opening in 2019 and be completed by 2020.
