Dive Brief:

• As part of Ballpark Village's $260 million Phase 2 expansion next to Busch Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals and The Cordish Cos. have topped out the first new Class A office building added to downtown St. Louis in 30 years, according to a Cordish announcement.
• The 11-story PricewaterhouseCoopers Pennant Building — constructed by Paric Corp. and designed by HKS Architects, Hord Coplan Macht and Tao & Lee — will also feature street-level retail, 460 parking spaces and a private rooftop deck with views of Busch Stadium and downtown St. Louis. The building is set to open this summer. 
• The 700,000-square-foot phase will also add a three-story retail pavilion, a Live! by Loews hotel and a 29-story luxury residential tower. Of the $169 million of contract dollars awarded to date, $42.2 million have been awarded to minority-owned businesses and $13.2 million to women-owned businesses, exceeding the 25% and 5% participation goals, respectively. 

Dive Insight:

Sports-related construction typically generates a great deal of excitement among companies that have the chance to be involved. Reed Cordish, a principal and partner at The Cordish Cos., told Construction Dive earlier this year that these high-profile projects give his company an edge in drawing general contractor and subcontractor bids, which is particularly important at a time when many owners are finding it difficult to staff their projects. To that end, Cordish and its development partners usually hold “kickoffs” well in advance of construction in an effort to increase small and disadvantaged business participation by sharing information and answering questions about the project. 

These developments also count on people wanting to be near their favorite sports team's home base, both in the season and during the offseason. To be successful, they need businesses to move in, bringing customers and employees with them, so that the area continues to thrive on non-game days.

Almost a year ago, Cordish and the Jacksonville Jaguars, along with Iguana Investments, announced they were co-developing a $2.5 billion mixed-use district near the team’s home at TIAA Bank Field (formerly known as EverBank Field) in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The riverfront development will sit on what is now a brownfield, which will require cleanup of contaminated soil left behind by oil tanks that used to be stored there. 

Once that task is complete, and if plans for the 4.25-million-square-foot development come to fruition, the site will see construction of retail, office, hotel, convention, entertainment and residential buildings, turning the area into a walkable live-work-play district. While there is no construction timeline yet, Reed Cordish said the company is very “bullish” on the project.