One Cardinal Way hits 100% leased

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Just nine months after welcoming its first residents, One Cardinal Way is on the verge of being 100% leased.

As of Thursday, according to Cordish Living Residential Operations Director Will Rogers, the 296 units are 96% leased. They'll hit 100% next week.

St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III calls it a "great milestone", especially considering the impact of the pandemic. "

It's really borne out the idea that people want to live down here and take in all the amenities that downtown has to offer," he says.

According to Rogers, 70% of the lessees live at One Cardinal Way full-time. DeWitt says many are young professionals and empty nesters, but others belong to a market that, he says, most downtown properties elsewhere don't tap into.

"Maybe they're empty nesters or whatever, but they live outside of the market and they come into St. Louis four, five, six, seven times a year for Cardinals games or to visit relatives or whatever, and they're deciding, 'why not keep stuff here and have our own place," he says. "And that's something we're really thrilled to see, because not everybody can tap into a market like that. But, based on our location and views of the ballgame and the other amenities, it's created that opportunity for us."

So, does the success of One Cardinal Way clear the way for a second residential tower to be included in phase 3 of Ballpark Village?

"Certainly the preliminary verdict is in that we've created something special," says DeWitt. "Presumably more of it would be successful too, but we have to run through all the exercises of planning, financing and everything else first.

"We've already talked about some schematic design ideas for maybe another tower or whatever, but it's a little early to start talking about when we might break ground on something else."

DeWitt adds "It's not just you build it and they will come. You have to build something really good and they will come and that's what happened here."

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