Plans for major downtown St. Louis development announced

ST. LOUIS -- Plans for a six-block, $450 million hotel, condominium and shopping development for downtown St. Louis were announced Wednesday, marking the second time in four days a major project for downtown has been unveiled.

St. Louis-based Pyramid Cos. and Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. are teaming on the new Mercantile Exchange project that will include several buildings, all but one of them owned by Pyramid and its partner, Spinnaker Real Estate Partners LLC of Connecticut.

The project will include redevelopment of the St. Louis Centre shopping mall and renovation of the vacant Mercantile Library building. Also to be renovated are the One City Centre office tower, the Macy's building and the former Dillard's building, which will be renamed the Laurel.

The project is expected to be completed in phases, some of which should be finished by the end of 2008. John Steffen, chief executive of Pyramid, said the entire project should be finished in 2010.

"Downtown is on an upswing, and we can push the momentum up," Steffen said.

St. Louis Centre opened in 1985 and was expected to generate downtown revitalization. But retailers soon began leaving. Pyramid purchased the mall in August 2006 for $9.1 million, and the center was closed less than a month later.

On Sunday, Centene Corp. announced it will move its headquarters from Clayton to Ballpark Village, an area being developed near Busch Stadium. Centene's $250 million development will add up to 1.2 million square feet of office space and up to 75,000 square feet of retail space, as well as a hotel.

The developers of Ballpark Village, Baltimore-based Cordish Co., plan an additional 360,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of office space and condos.