Walton Construction St. Louis has completed an $18.5 million expansion of St. Peters Rec-Plex, an indoor recreation facility located in St. Peters, Missouri.

The project included a new 106,000-square-foot recreation building with two National Hockey League regulation-sized ice rinks with seating for 1,200 and 300. The expansion tripled the size of the fitness training area with adult locker rooms, dry and wet saunas, an exercise and weight training area, a cardio theater, and a lobby. St. Paul, Minn.-based Ankeny-Kell Architects, which provided design services for the project, has worked with Walton on three other sports facilities, including the training facility for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.

Source: RE Business Online

Wellspring Development Company and Belcher Homes LLC, will break ground this month on Rock Hill Trails, billed as “the area’s first totally ‘green’ new home community.”

Located in Woodriver, Illinois, the development will feature about 290 single family homes, multi–family units, and neighborhood commercial properties. Rock Hill Trails will offer high-performance homes, open spaces with trails and nature corridors, and neighborhood amenities to support social interaction.

According to Wellspring, all homes in the development will conform to National Association of Home Builders Green Building Guidelines and will be eligible for LEED certification. Homeowners will be able to “up-green” with other energy savings and conservation features. The landscape plan will provide natural habitat for wildlife and native plant species.

Wellspring plans to begin home construction on Phase I by first quarter 2008.

St. Louis-based Brinkmann Constructors has completed The Crescent in Clayton, a $73 million, nine-story condominium tower located at 155 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton, according to RE Business Online. The 390,000-square-foot building features 72 luxury condos ranging in price from $900,000 to more than $2 million, and 26,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Retailers include Araka, Kaldi’s Coffeehouse, Pulaski Bank, Lusso, Extra Virgin – an Olive Ovation, Elements of Denim and Sweet Petunia. The building is being developed by Mark S. Mehlman Realty. Currently, 70 percent of the condos are under contract, and 80 percent of the retail space is leased.

Source: RE Business Online

Phase I construction on Market at McKnight, a $95 million mixed-use development in Rock Hill, will be complete this month. The project is being developed by Novus Development, with The Lawrence Group providing master planning for the entire project and complete architectural services for the first phase. Hensley Construction is general contractor.

Phase I includes 126,000 square feet of retail space. Stein Mart will be the anchor with additional tenants including Starbucks Coffee, Clarkson Eye Care, Cartridge World and Bandana’s.
Phase II will include 150,000 square feet of retail space, 50,000 square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet of residential space. Completion is scheduled for 2010.

Source: REBusiness Online 

The University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) has purchased a $2.7 million, 56,000-square-foot laboratory facility and will renovate it for use as a new tech incubator and supercomputing center.

The building, across the highway from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, had been renovated for use as a lab by Incyte Genomics, a Wilmington, Delaware-based pharmaceutical company. The facility comes equipped with a 3,000-square-foot central computing chamber and peripheral office/lab spaces. These niche improvements were attractive to UMSL for their IT Enterprises, a new business incubator set to open at the end of 2007.

UMSL plans to invest several million dollars in IT Enterprises, which will house a supercomputer and up to 12 startup companies. UMSL hopes the supercomputer will attract researchers and financial grants, which in turn will vitalize the business incubator. The building would have required significant interior renovation had it been sold to a traditional office user.

Source: Midwest Real Estate News

The St. Louis County Port Authority has completed a land purchase that will pave the way for construction to begin on the $375 million Pinnacle Entertainment casino and hotel project. The project is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs.

The County purchased 39 acres in south St. Louis County that Pinnacle will use to build a four-lane access road to its planned River City Casino and Hotel. Pinnacle plans to open the development in 2008.

The County bought the land for $3 million in early July, according to sources. The property, the former site of the Air Force National Imagery and Mapping Agency, was heavily damaged by the 1993 flood. Environmental remediation is expected to begin immediately.

Source: St. Louis Business Journal, MSN Money.com