Can Union Station be ‘in’ again?
It has been 31 years since the last trains left Union Station. And 24 years since its $140 million renovation as a hotel, shopping and entertainment spot on Market Street. But today the station is a shell of what it once was.
Banana Republic? Gone. Talbot’s? Gone. Body Shop, Brookstone, Nature Co.? Gone, gone, gone.
The space formerly occupied by Nature Co. is a gift shop called Fat Sassy’s. Nearby, a shop that calls itself a newsstand has one magazine rack near the front door and several shelves of liquor behind the counter.
But don’t write of this downtown landmark just yet.
A large expansion by Marriott, which in December took over the station’s hotel from Hyatt, is about to get under way. Marriott will move the front desk to the atrium near the station’s western end, allowing greater use of the barrel-vaulted Great Hall for
private events. Marriott also will extend its meeting and restaurant space into much of the retail area along the midway.
As a result, Union Station’s shops will be concentrated along the eastern concourse, where the food court is situated beneath the arched train shed, which dates to 1894. Whether this transformation — the station’s most extensive since the 1980s — will revive the place is yet to be seen.
Barbara Geisman, deputy mayor for development, said city officials hope better times are ahead.
"We would certainly like to see as much retail as possible in Union Station," she said. "As the downtown residential and business population grow, we think there’s a market for more mainstream retail there."
Resuscitating shopping at Union Station will require "some big-time marketing," Geisman said.
"A lot of this is that you get a name draw and then that kind of sets the tone for the rest of it," she said. "We think the station presents opportunities for larger retail."
Bass Pro Shops, based in Springfield, Mo., took a look a few years ago but passed on Union Station, Geisman said. She added that shopping habits have changed since the 1980s, when "festival markets" such as Quincy Market in Boston, South Street Seaport in New York and Union Station drew big crowds. All have faded.
"Things have changed a lot since then," Geisman said. "Instead of people going there on a whim because they want to see a neat old building, you now have a lot of people with disposable income who like to shop."
Frances Percich, Union Station’s marketing manager, said "serious" discussions are under way with two retailers, including one that would be new to St. Louis. She declined to name them. Percich said the station will continue to market itself as a tourist attraction with numerous spring and summer events.
"When people walk in here expecting a mall, they will be disappointed," she said. "We’re not a mall. We have no anchor store."
Among the few Union Station visitors one afternoon last week were Russ and Donna Clark of Yuba City, Calif. They were staying at the Marriott for a meeting. The Clarks said they had been unsure whether Union Station’s emptiness resulted from a renovation still under way or from a lack of business.
Told that the renovation was completed in 1985 and that the station had been in decline for years, Donna Clark said: "Wow, that’s a shame. This looks like a great idea. It’s disappointing not to see a lot of people."
Union Station’s current retail occupancy is 79 percent, Percich said. Ownership has changed in recent years. In 2003, the inability of St. Louis Station Associates, the investment group behind the 1980s renovation, to pay the mortgage led to foreclosure by Regency Savings Bank of Oak Park, Ill. Park National Bank of Chicago bought the property from Regency and owns it through Union Station Holdings LLC.
Doug Dean, the Marriott’s general manager, said the hotel renovation will restore some of the inn’s original 1890s configuration. He noted that the original front desk was off the atrium, remarkable for its glass-block floor. All 539 rooms, including the 67 in the station’s original "headhouse," will be redone. Dean declined to specify the overall cost, saying it remained "a moving target."
Four meeting rooms and a restaurant will be built near the new lobby. One floor above, the existing restaurant will be used mainly for private events. Beginning with a ballroom freshening done by November, the renovation project will be completed in late 2011, he said.
Hotel and shopping areas will remain open during the renovation.
Across Market from Union Station is the western end of the Gateway Mall, the milelong park that extends east to the Old Courthouse. Tricia Roland-Hamilton, head of the project to redo the mall, said that to thrive, the Union Station area must have more offices, residents and stores.
"The key to livening up that space, not just Union Station but that part of the mall, is density," she said. "And we don’t have that right now."