In the heart of St. Louis, the dynamic sports and entertainment landscape is not only igniting fervor and anticipation but also propelling substantial commercial real estate endeavors, as showcased by industry experts at MetroWire Media’s recent Sports & Entertainment Summit hosted at Ballpark Village in Downtown St. Louis.
St. Louis is a sports town, speakers agreed, but those activities encompass more than the highly visible events that are familiar to fans and people enjoying entertainment offers. “There are also more than 14,000 nonprofits providing job training, startups and other related aspects,” said moderator Kim Plank, consultant at Kim Plank Consulting.
The area around Ballpark Village is “a 24/7 vibrant neighborhood, including residential and co-working spaces,” said Mike LaMartina, COO of Ballpark Village. The area is thriving thanks in part to projects that extend “beyond the Cardinals season.”
According to L. Jared Boyd, chief of staff, at the City of St. Louis Mayor’s Office, “We live in a world where sports and entertainment drive development.” He emphasized that the area around those attractions is “safer as a result of a change in the physical outline of St. Louis that creates revenue and makes neighborhoods more sustainable.”
The city tracks the economic impact of the sports and entertainment projects in the area, Boyd noted, with millions of dollars generated by the Cardinals and Blues teams alone through not just game attendance but use of surrounding entertainment venues for dining, parking, hotel stays, theater or music events, and tourist attractions.
“It’s important to think about who benefits and how (these activities support) small businesses,” Boyd added.
To LaMartina, it’s also important “to establish a business cycle that is diverse and focuses on entertainment value — it all creates synergy and makes the city more attractive to visitors and locals.” Such activities enhance a stronger economic base and increase the number of jobs, he said.
For Jeff Verkamp, senior project architect at HOK, the social impact of sports and entertainment business is “a common theme creating a central hub. It’s not only on the day of these events but 365 days a year for the neighborhoods around them. We want to interact with these facilities.”
“Retail is always a herd mentality,” said Patrick Willett, managing director at Pace Properties. “Successful businesses feed off each other, create excitement and interest, and encourage new investments and development.”
Verkamp emphasized that achieving success involves addressing the ongoing challenge of balancing business and neighborhood life. He stressed the importance of considering scalability during the project's design phase and highlighted the new soccer stadium as a key example, underscoring the stadium's significance in prioritizing elements such as project circulation and ensuring entry points from all four corners.
The growth in sports and entertainment activity has focused attention on other aspects of city life, according to Ruben Guzman, LEED AP, project executive at PARIC Corporation, and resulted in looking at ways to address concerns about gentrification and build affordability for established area residents. “We’re working with the city on a mix of affordable and market-rate housing so we can bring more people into the city,” he said.
Willett noted that with projects like the Enterprise Center, “We developed community advisory groups on a rolling schedule (that) created the opportunity for inclusivity in all aspects of (the project), with measures and benchmarks for women, minorities, African Americans, and Latinos to be involved. We worked with every organization possible. We constantly audited everything from Phase 1 onward and had a very strong process and expectations.”
The panelists agreed that CRE professionals can capitalize on and leverage special elements of St. Louis for new projects, such as a wealth of existing properties that are ripe for redevelopment and reuse. “Our historic buildings bring developers in and can be used to start anchoring projects,” Guzman said.
Affordability is also a plus. “We haven’t priced out teachers and first responders like other cities have,” Boyd said. Economic justice is a constant focus.
The key to continued and future success in sports and entertainment, as well as related neighborhood vitality, is for CRE professionals to talk up the good things happening in St. Louis. “We can try to sell St. Louis wherever we go and how great we are,” Willett said.
“We have a great product,” LaMartina agreed. “Our city and region has immense history and loads of momentum to support what we’re trying to do. Progress is progressing, with multimillions of projects underway. I’m excited about the next five to 10 years.”
According to Boyd, the sports and entertainment activity is “making it easier for small businesses to open, people to get around with only one car or no car, feel safer, have affordable housing where families can thrive.”
It isn’t just the professional sports teams and events that are making an impact. Amateur and youth sports are also a factor. “I’m excited about more amateur sports,” Boyd added.
“A meaningful amount of youth sports comes through Ballpark Village,” LaMartina said. “Professional teams invest as well and create access for areas that don’t have opportunities for young people to be involved in sports. Such philanthropic projects have a spiral effect, a ripple effect.”
Plans are for the area south of the iconic Arch to be the source of construction materials for the entire U.S., Guzman said.
“That development is ambitious,” Boyd added. “We’re trying to address the cost of building, which is a world issue.”
“This will put us on the map,” said Willett. “We’ll be constructing buildings for the whole country.”
The Convention Center project will create expansion opportunities for surrounding and new businesses, Willett said. “It will encourage events at venues around the city. The airport is also important (to bringing people into St. Louis), with more direct flights and international service.”
An important role of continued sports and entertainment development will be to “convince people to get off technology and devices and get out of the house, so venues will have to stay fresh,” Verkamp concluded.
The event sponsors included Pace Properties, McConnell & Associates, Carmody MacDonald, and Wies Offsite.
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Mark your calendars now for MWM’s next event - the STL Industrial Summit on Nov. 2, 2023. If you are interested in being on the panel, hosting, or sponsoring the event, please email lisa@metrowiremedia.com.