ST. LOUIS — Green Street St. Louis has acquired HDA Architects. The companies are joining forces to create a fully integrated development company. HDA will assimilate under Green Street Building Group’s umbrella of services, led by Paul Giacoletto, to provide a full spectrum of design-related opportunities for Green Street’s development and construction teams. HDA will continue to provide design services for its platform of clients in the office, industrial, beverage, multifamily, mixed-use and craft brewery sectors. Green Street says that the acquisition is a natural step in being able to offer a larger platform of real estate and construction services. Green Street, founded in 2008, focuses on the redevelopment of underutilized properties within urban cores. HDA was founded in 1986 and has designed projects across the country totaling more than 100 million square feet.
By Ora Reynolds and Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest Kansas City industrial real estate is trending upward with no shortage of leasing activity. The city’s location in the heart of America, with 30 percent more interstate miles per capita running through it than any other city, offers efficiency and redundancy for global e-commerce and distribution operations. With over 270 million square feet of existing industrial space in both surface and underground business parks, ample land for new buildings, a skilled logistics workforce and robust power and fiber infrastructure, Kansas City is one of the preferred geographic locations for distribution centers and is poised for continued growth based on these strong fundamentals. The nation’s transition to online purchasing at an unprecedented pace has created ripples of change. The increase in e-commerce is driving demand for more distribution space at a rate of 1.25 million square feet for each $1 billion increase in online sales, and this demand puts an increasing pressure on the supply chain for resiliency. Americans are purchasing everything online, from food and essential supplies to clothing and gifts. In the second quarter of 2020, Americans increased their online purchasing by $211.5 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. …
CASSVILLE, MO. — Westco Home Furnishings Co. has signed a 10-year, 13,325-square-foot retail lease at Cassville Plaza in Southwest Missouri’s Cassville. The furniture retailer maintains 12 locations across Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Midwest Retail Properties (MRP) owns Cassville Plaza, which is a Walmart-anchored shopping center. Other tenants at the property include Tractor Supply and Dollar Tree. Westco is relocating from its current space on 8th Street. Tom Heintz of MRP is working with Westco to manage the buildout of the space. Westco anticipates opening for business at the new location in February.
ST. PETERS, MO. — Pappy’s Smokehouse is the latest business to join the tenant roster at The Shoppes at Mid Rivers in the suburban St. Louis community of St. Peters. The 2,800-square-foot restaurant is expected to open by the end of this month. This is the second location for Pappy’s, which serves signature dry-rubbed baby back ribs. GBT Realty Corp. owns The Shoppes at Mid Rivers, which opened in 2018 and is home to a mix of retailers such as Academy Sports, HomeGoods, Ulta, Marshalls and Outback Steakhouse.
WASHINGTON, MO. — Contegra Construction Co. has completed building a new headquarters and manufacturing facility for Melton Machine & Control Co. in Washington, about 50 miles west of St. Louis. The 367,000-square-foot project more than doubles the size of the company’s existing 154,000-square-foot operations. The development includes a 74,000-square-foot corporate office, training and conference space, and is designed to improve collaboration and support with nearby subsidiary Computech Manufacturing Co. The headquarters is situated on 42 acres within Heidmann Industrial Park. Joining Contegra on the project team were Gray Design Group, 21 Design Group, Case Structural Engineering, RJP Electric, Wiegmann Associates, Heggemann Plumbing, Bi-State Fire Protection and Washington Engineering & Architecture. Melton designs and builds automated welding systems for a variety of industries. The company employs 132 workers and plans to add another 20 employees at the new facility.
By Mary Lamie, Bi-State Development The key to current and future success for four ports in Missouri and Illinois is collaboration. As ports continue to play a critical role in the global supply chain, the special working relationship between the directors of the ports in St. Louis and Kansas City is helping to keep operations flowing on the inland waterways, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Significant investments in each port are also fueling growth at each facility. “Like many others in the freight industry, we are classified as essential. We have access to six Class I railroads, two multimodal harbors, four interstate highways and millions of square feet of warehouse space, plus manufacturing areas and developable sites,” says Dennis Wilmsmeyer, executive director of America’s Central Port (ACP), where the constant level of activity reinforces the significance of all ports as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. With its location just north of St. Louis on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi River and its many transportation and logistical advantages, ACP has attracted 80-plus commercial tenants. Its harbor operators transport more than 3 million tons of goods valued at more than $1.1 billion annually. Though the pandemic has resulted in …
By Allison Gray, Steadfast City Economic & Community Partners The growing demand for distribution space and the related importance of freight logistics and a healthy supply chain have remained steady even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shake up markets across the U.S. and around the globe. This demand is evident in the bi-state St. Louis region, where more inventory of bulk distribution space has been added in the five-year period between 2015 and 2019 than at any other point in St. Louis history, totaling more than 18 million square feet of top-of-the-line modern bulk space. Recent construction and development trends in the bi-state St. Louis area reveal that bulk distribution buildings — those that top 250,000 square feet — have been the highest growing sector for the regional inventory. Since 2016, 94 percent of all bulk construction has been focused along the vital I-70 corridor, while 90 percent of the new major industrial parks with significant construction are located within 10 minutes of the I-70 corridor. This corridor, which includes portions of I-170, I-270 and I-370, is a development hotspot that links Illinois and Missouri. It has emerged as a major logistics corridor supported with more than $600 million …
KANSAS CITY, MO. — An affiliate of Abacus Capital Group has acquired Fountain View, a 398-unit luxury apartment community located adjacent to the Country Club Plaza shopping center in Kansas City. The purchase price was undisclosed. The property was built in 1998. Jeff Stingley, Max Helgeson and Michael Spero of CBRE represented the seller, a global investment advisor. The planned southern extension of Kansas City’s streetcar line will make Fountain View a transit-oriented development, according to CBRE.
KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Opus Group has completed Westley on Broadway, a 254-unit luxury apartment complex in Kansas City’s historic Westport neighborhood. Located at the corner of Westport Road and Broadway Boulevard, the six-story project features three levels of underground parking and 10,000 square feet of retail space. Floor plans vary from studios to two-bedroom units. Amenities include a pool, podcast lab, fitness center, pet spa, coworking spaces and onsite storage. Many of the existing buildings in Westport date back to the late 19th century and feature red brick. Opus selected a blend of red brick to complement the building’s surroundings. Opus served as developer, design-builder, interior designer and structural engineer. Monthly rents start at $1,139 for studios.
By Brandon Wappelhorst, Sansone Group In nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives, 2020 could unequivocally be summarized as certainly uncertain. The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the world and has caused significant disruption to everyday life. While likely further down the list of today’s topical issues, the overall effect of COVID-19 on the office market in St. Louis is still to be determined — but it will undoubtedly have an impact. Over the last few years, the commercial real estate market in St. Louis, much like the rest of the country, had been riding a wave of economic success. Demand for office space was high and the region was experiencing record-low vacancy rates, increasing rental rates, positive absorption, increased volume of office sale transactions and new buildings coming out of the ground. Construction of Edge@West, a 110,000-square-foot office building in Creve Coeur, began in late 2019 after a lease was signed with lead tenant SM Global. Breaking ground at less than 25 percent pre-leased was indicative of the strength of the office market at the time. Clayton, the strongest submarket in the St. Louis metro area, also saw the beginnings of …