1) The Saint Louis Brewing Company (Schlafly) sells more bottles than it can make with its current facilities, so it has to contract brew with companies outside of St. Louis to meet local demand. At some point in the next five years, it is reasonable to assume that Schlafly will need to invest in bigger digs. There will be a large brewery built somewhere in the St. Louis region.
2) St. Louis Soccer United has not done well in Fenton. The St. Louis Athletica folded. AC St. Louis folded. The future is questionable. An MLS fanchise can only come with a soccer-specific stadium, and we don't have one of those. Speculation about where to put one has been rampant for years now, but money men have not appeared.
3) The Carter Carburetor building on North Grand is a superfund site that has been sitting for decades waiting to be cleaned. The building is beautiful, but the toxins are not. The popular plan is to simply destroy it and give it to the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls club... probably for a big grassy field similar to their current facility. The EPA is making their move now and funds will be designated, but what should the future look like?
It's a beautiful building and I hope there's a way to clean it without destroying it, especially the large multi-colored windows.
It's interesting to note that the Herbert Hoover Boy's and Girls Club has a soccer field where Sportsman's Park used to be.
The Carter Carburator building has always been next to sports facilities.
Could the site be made into a brewery and soccer park? Is that crazy? The windows would need to be made ball-proof, of course.
If the site could be cleaned, the building could easily accomodate a brewery and parking garage. If a soccer field was pressed flush against it and seating built around the field, more brewing stuff could be put under the stands. True, only having stands on three sides will limit capacity, but also construction costs. A soccer specific stadium doesn't need massive seating capacity to qualify for MLS' standards.
 |
| Rio Tinto Field, home of Real Salt Lake, 20,008 capacity |
 |
| PPL Park, home of the Philadelphia Union, 18,500 capacity |
MLS stadiums are not like the soccer stadiums found in the rest of the world, they're simple, low-rise structures.
Just in doing what Schlafly needs to do anyway for future growth, they could easily secure the building (environmental health stuff aside) and put in the basic structure for the stands to be built on. Investment in St. Louis Soccer United could be greatly enhanced with a beloved local craft brewery as an anchor. It'd be a mutually beneficial relationship. Each would enhance the other.
This fits with the legacy of Sportsman's Park. Before our city leaders destroyed China Town to build a baseball stadium downtown, we had two baseball teams at Sportsman's Park. The Cardinals moved downtown, but the Browns eventually moved to Baltimore where they became the Orioles. They play in a place called Camden Yards. That's the stadium that inspired the St. Louis Cardinals to rip down the old Busch Stadium and build the new one. What if a new Sportsman's Park was built, inspired by Camden Yards?
There's something different about Camden Yards that sets it apart from a lot of ball parks.
The B&O Warehouse is a distinguishing part of the stadium and the neighborhood.
The building is now used as offices for the ball club's management, rooms for players, and box seats for those who can pay. Imagine if the building had huge windows and a brewery inside...
 |
| There's a lot of land in front of that building. It'd make a nice soccer park. Photo taken from the Preservation Research Office's website |
I like it - but are there any reasons why Schlafly can't renovate the Lemp Brewery?
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's a matter of scale. The Lemp Complex is too big. They could move into part of it and share with Amalgamated and some offices, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteTap Room -> BottleWorks -> Third Location -> Lemp If each expansion comes with a kit that dwarves the one used before, there are probably a few steps between the BottleWorks and the Lemp Brewery.
In the case of the Carter Carburator building idea outlined above they could split the space with a sports team and a parking garage so they wouldn't need to fill all the space.
It'd be interesting if the Lemp could be home to several small breweries. I've always wondered why AB hasn't seen fit to take over the Lemp complex, with offices if nothing else. Give it to Michelob.
It needs to be transformed back to it's original purpose. It needs to be put back on the tax role to attract jobs! Folks in this community need places for jobs. It's ideal, it's on major bus lines, in a growing area at the edge of northside regeneration foot print and Herbert Hoover, while it does a great job, it does not need to be expanded. Once some clubs get "too" large, they become ineffective. More parents need to be eld accountable and get involved in the lives of their own kids instead of using facilities as "built in baby sitters". With GAS prices increasing, you think someone would use a bit of wisdom and explore the right thing to do?
ReplyDeleteKaren
Well, looks like it'll all be demolished and leveled flat, so it's a blank slate now... just like a lot of the north side. I just hope they pull the foundation out while they're at it so it is developable.
ReplyDelete