Posts Tagged ‘St. Louis Business Journal’

St. Louis Centre is finally such a distant memory that St. Louis officials have given the structure a new name, Seventh Street Garage (and retail).  The once-popular (for about a year) downtown mall, will become three floors (750 spaces) of parking for US Bank Building and One City Centre, a two-floored movie theater, and 70K of first floor retail – owned by the Missouri Development Finance Board.  Clayco and Environmental Operations will partner as the developers of the $31 million project.  The columnist plans to arm-wrestle the St. Louis Business Journals’ savvy Lisa Brown and the Post-Dispatch’s able duo of business reporters named Tim for the details of the new retail users.

Roddy

“My brother, Michael Roberts, is hoping to be named Ambassador to the Bahamas by President Obama“, confided Michael’s brother, Steve, during Friday’s city “Business Celebration Luncheon” at America’s Center. Then, he turned to the Roberts family’s communications and real estate empire, noting that a downtown Indigo Hotel is in the wings at 917 Locust and will offer 120 rooms. The Roberts freres are hoping that their bid – one of three – to offer Broadband services in Missouri will be accepted by the government. “The government would pay 80 percent of the $80 million needed through the Stimulus Act,” he said. “We want to raise the substandard quality of life for rural America,” said Roberts. “After all, we have towers in Illinois, Kansas and Oklahoma, that are the second, privately-held towers in the United States.” The ballroom was filled with businesspeople, who came to meet and greet friends, rivals and the region’s politicos. On hand was Circuit Court Judge David Mason, who mentioned, that his docket was full and “in the midst of a major legal malpractice trial against attorney Dan Finney.” Ald. Joe Roddy learned from HOK exec David Chassin, that the architectural firm’s co-founder, Gyo Obata, had delivered a touching speech the night before at WashU before members of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Chassin said Obata spoke of how, during World War II, his parents were interred in a prison camp in California, because they were Japanese. They spent two weeks living on a racetrack.” Hosted by the St. Louis Development Corp. and Ellen Sherberg‘s St. Louis Business Journal, the luncheon drew an interesting comment on the sidelines from a convention center exec, when asked about former manager Bruce Sommers. “He’s teaching and also helping Mayor Slay on a project to bring the city and the county together,” he said. . . A quick-witted staffer of U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan was the first to respond to a request for “a doctor” from Sherberg, emcee of the event. Carnahan Tim Ogle isn’t a doctor, but he is a retired St. Louis firefighter. “Doc” Ogle’s diagnosis? He thought the stricken diner had the flu.