The phrase “if you build it, they will come” often extends well beyond the motion picture fantasy plot of creating a baseball diamond in the middle of a cornfield. The ongoing 600-acre development project in eastern Creve Coeur and extreme western Olivette is a real-life testament to that fact.
A corny comparison? Maybe, but there’s more. The area’s dream revolves around the agriculture and biotech yields of ag-tech superstars Bayer and the Danforth Plant Science Center. And Creve Coeur has its diamond scheduled for completion in the near future – a folded diamond configuration for the Olive and Lindbergh interchange.
More details and artist renderings on all phases of 39º North were revealed at an Open House held at the Creve Coeur Government Center on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Enhancing transportation
Creating the folded diamond is a major step for 39° North, but it was well needed, anyway, considering the Olive/Lindbergh interchanges were built by MoDOT way back in 1957. Mike Brown, of Access Engineering, explained that the design-build team will be removing unneeded and dangerous weave lanes on the existing bridges and adding others to make them more pedestrian friendly.
“The main road and highway construction will begin around April or May of next year,” Brown said. “The majority of that project will be totally completed in 2020. The idea is to divert more traffic from Old Olive and to remove the barriers so [commuters] can travel in all directions from Old Olive onto Lindbergh.”
In the short-term, commuters may experience increased congestion.
“There will be some added traffic time for lane closures in the short-term but the benefits will definitely outweigh the brief periods of congestion and aggravation,” Jim Heines, Creve Coeur’s director of public works, said.
Another important construction phase that will soon follow is transforming Old Olive Road into a “Great Street.” That term seems confusing for people who grew up in the area or have had businesses in this general region for decades. After all, Old Olive Road has always been considered a mere side street that curved around from Olive Boulevard to Lindbergh Road, and a connector with Guelbreth Lane to the Jewish Community Center’s Millstone Campus.
But Jonathan Ryan, a landscape artist with Clayton-based Christner Inc., offered a clarification of the term.
“[The term] ‘Great Street’ refers to conveyance for many modes of travel, not just cars,” Ryan explained. “Regarding the Old Olive project phase, we’re kind of thinking it’s 2 to 5 years out.”
He added that Great Streets projects usually have a really good return on investment for citizens.
Brown added that Great Streets typically means streets with “great connections.”
In this case, improving sidewalks on Old Olive and removing lanes will qualify Old Olive for the distinction.
A rendering of the proposed 39º North bio-tech Innovation district. [St. Louis Economic Partnership graphic]
“The new folded diamond will include two new signals, and all traffic will go through more smoothly,” Brown said. “Overall, it will be good use of the space without changing any of the development. The first project is for a guarded, safer pedestrian route. [There will] be a 6-foot sidewalk from Warson to Old Olive …on the south side for now and just a small part on the north side.”
According to Heines, there are two potential sources of funding for the Old Olive improvements: MoDOT’s Cost-Share Program and the Governor’s Transportation Cost-Share Program. Both have different timelines.
Attracting new business
There have been several key players in 39º North from the outset. Most have centered around expanding upon what corporations like Bayer and the Danforth Plant Science Center bring to the area’s playing field.
Some of the 39º North’s current businesses are:
• Forrest Innovations, Ltd., which works to develop eco-friendly solutions for mosquito vector-control
• KWS Saat, a global seed company
• Evogene, a computational biotechnology company that uses computational predictive biology to develop life science products
• Kalima Bio Agritech Inc., an Israel-based genetics and breeding technology company aimed at improving plant productivity
Brazil’s Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira, which claims to be the world’s largest sugarcane tech company, chose BRDG [Bio Research & Development Growth] Park at the Danforth Plant Science Center as the home of its North American research headquarters.
BRDG Park and the Helix Center, which is owned and operated by the St. Louis Development Partnership [SLEDP], are biotech incubators that provide companies with wet labs, dry labs, office space, workforce training and more.
“The idea for 39º North was to build an innovative district around the agriculture and technology industries,” said Janet Wilding, the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership’s vice president of major projects. “But it’s also to make it a plant science academic incubator, like the Helix Center and BRDG at the Danforth Plant Science Center. Hopefully, with the changes we plan to implement, when [companies] graduate from there, they’ll want to stay and work here. The idea is to stage companies to come in [and] help them find capital to stay and grow.”
Wilding noted that agriculture is Missouri’s biggest industry at $88 billion in annual revenue.
Catering to new residents
In addition to work space, people need to find comfortable living space within an environment which they feel like they fit in. An earlier 10-year plan for 39º North anticipated the construction of 400 residential units, 540,000 square feet of office and laboratory space as well as 86,000 square feet of retail space. That initial part has been quite a few years in the making.
“We’ve had a lot of development lately in that area,” said Jason Jaggi, Creve Coeur’s director of community development. “Two new residential projects are The Vue and Vanguard Heights, [the latter of] which was formerly the long-standing Hamilton [Christian] Church.
Meanwhile, Wilding was excited to mention an added plus to the 39º North dream. She said Olivette recently finished its master plan to revamp its parks. Warson Park is near the northeastern boundary of 39º North while Stacy Park is less than half a mile to the east of the development area and ready to be connected to the Centennial Greenway, a project of the Great Rivers Greenway.
“It will travel through Olivette and Creve Coeur all the way past the area by the Maryland Heights Aquatic Center to link to Creve Coeur Park,” said Julie Padberg-White, leader of the women-owned FPA Group, which helps communities and organizations plan and program for their futures.
“It’s about quality of life by linking the trails and offering different ways of using green areas.”
The Olivette area connections are being funded by Great Rivers Greenway after being finalized through SLEDP and Reitz & Jens, Inc., a St. Louis-based engineering firm. Those walking and biking trails are also a major plus in attracting and keeping so many new workers in the area after arriving from countries on every continent.
“The younger generation won’t accept just getting in the car all the time,” Paul Reitz, principal of the Consulting Engineers firm, said. “They want to be able to walk out of their apartment and walk or bike anywhere. We try to create those paths.
“The ultimate goal is having just dedicated walking trails. The greenways are like a relay – take the baton from Forest Park to U.City, then pass it off to Stacy Park, then the next leg around the Aquaport, then to Creve Coeur Park.”
Reitz knows that the dream of 39º North won’t just snowball on its own and that it’s important to keep the momentum going.
“We’re like Cortex was 10 years ago” he said, referencing St. Louis City’s 200-acre innovation, and technology incubator. “The hardest thing is to keep the excitement about it.”
