The MLB Cardinals' Ballpark Village opens this week, with the team and Baltimore-based developer Cordish Cos. expecting "first-year attendance to top 7 million," according to Tim Bryant of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. But while the project's first phase "will make a splash" in downtown St. Louis, it "doesn't include all the things promised when plans for Ballpark Village surfaced more than a decade ago." Cardinals President Bill Dewitt III said that developers will "look closely at how to achieve something like their original plan, announced in 2000, to fill the 10-acre site with office buildings and a residential tower." DeWitt: "I’ve never given up on the hope of a large, mixed-use project that would fill the whole site." A source said Cordish officials discussed "in great earnest" construction of a residential building. DeWitt said that the Ballpark Village parcel at Clark Avenue and Broadway "could be ideal for a tall, thin residential tower." The development’s first phase "includes a Cardinals hall of fame and the Fox Sports Midwest television studio." DeWitt said that family-friendly offerings "will be among Ballpark Village’s 200 yearly events." He added that Super Bowl, March Madness and "even Oscars watch parties could be held before the 40-foot television at Ballpark Village's central court" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 3/23).
LEAVING THE NEST: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Don Muret reports Delaware North Sportservice's Cardinals Nation restaurant at Ballpark Village is "the first time in the vendor’s 98-year history that it has gone outside the four walls of a sports facility to run a food destination with connections to the primary venue." Cardinals Nation "encompasses a 510-seat restaurant and rooftop deck, which serves as an all-inclusive ticketed space for Cardinals games." The facility "will be open year-round, operating from 11 a.m. to midnight daily." The Cardinals are "responsible for booking catered events on days when games aren’t played" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/24 issue).
