Dave Dwars of the Lawrence Group was quoted in a Midwest Construction cover story on redevelopment of downtown St. Louis this month.

According to the article, 69 buildings have been restored downtown since 1999, totaling $1.3 billion in development.

An example is the Lawrence Group’s $125 million Park Pacific Building. Renovation of the 22-story, 470-sq-ft former Missouri Pacific/Union Pacific building, originally constructed in 1928, will include 108 condos, 50 apartments, 51,000 sq ft of office space and another 10,000 sq ft of space for street-level retail.

Another $1 billion in projects is in the pipeline with 26 buildings being restored or under development.

Other facts:

• 10,000 people live downtown of which 5,000 are new, according to the Downtown St. Louis Partnership.
• About 1,200 additional residents are expected to move in over the next three years.
• 2,700 new housing units opened downtown in the past two years.
• Downtown currently has more than 7,400 rental and sale units.

Walton Construction St. Louis operations manager Tom Kaiman of Chesterfield, Missouri has been chosen as one of 40 young professionals nationwide to receive the Building Design+Construction’s third annual “40 Under 40” award.

The honor is bestowed to young professionals in the design and construction industry. The editors described the winners as the “next generation of leadership.”

Currently, Kaiman supervises a 40-person team working on 11 projects in three states with a total construction value of more than $100 million. Kaiman is responsible for overseeing design, estimating and budgeting, construction operations and startup.

Kaiman’s early background as an AHL professional hockey player gave him special expertise to work on the $18.5 million St. Peters Rec-Plex Renovation and Expansion project in St. Peters, Missouri, which opened in November 2007. He also worked on the $6 million St. Louis Blues Ice Hockey Practice Facility in Hazelwood, Missouri.

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New York City-based Nassimi Realty has acquired the 20-story Millennium Center office tower  at 515 Olive St. in St. Louis. The building has 260,000 square feet of space, including ground-floor retail. Tenants include law firms Evans & Dixon and McAnany, Van Cleave and Phillips. Nassimi plans to upgrade the building to attract additional tenants.

Source: REBusiness Online 

Paric Corp. has broken ground on a $23.5 million hotel in the Delmar Loop neighborhood of St. Louis. The Moonrise Hotel will be a seven-story, 124-room boutique hotel featuring an upscale restaurant and bar, two meeting rooms and a rooftop patio. The developer is the Loop’s very own Joe Edwards and ACI Boland is project architect. St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management will operate the hotel upon completion in February 2009.

Source: REBusiness Online 

Construction is complete on the $8 million Saint Louis University Simon Recreation Center. The Lawrence Group provided  architectural and interior design and Alberici Constructors of St. Louis was the general contractor.

Phase II of the two-phase project completed in January 2008 includes a 9,638-square-feet expansion of the entrance on the upper level of the Simon Recreation Center. The new space features an open floor plan, a new entry reception area, a circular welcoming desk, a renovated lobby, all natural materials, a 35 feet tall water feature built into a maple wall glass mezzanine and a 4,990-square-foot glass mezzanine.

The Phase I 41,800-square-foot expansion of a parking garage into an exercise facility was completed in January 2007 with 200+ new workout machines, a juice bar and lounge, full wellness suite, additional locker rooms, a boulder wall and a gaming area. Several new multi-purpose rooms feature Pilates, yoga, spinning, aerobics and other fitness classes.

Walton Construction St. Louis has three Wal-Mart Supercenter projects under construction in Missouri and Illinois. The firm began work on a 180,954-square-foot Wal-Mart in Harrisburg, Ill., in November 2007, and is expecting completion by August. Walton also is building a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Jacksonville, Ill., scheduled for completion in February, and is expanding an existing Wal-Mart in Chesterfield, Mo., into a Supercenter. That project began this past fall and is scheduled to be completed in October.

Wichita, Kan.-based Law/Kingdom is providing design services for the Chesterfield and Harrisburg projects, and The Benham Group is designing the Jacksonville project.

Source: REBusiness Online