Punctuated By A Success

Two events last week - the grand opening of HRI’s handsome new Cupples Station Apartments in one of the last undeveloped Cupples buildings and the final transfer of ownership of the St. Louis Blues and control of Savvis Center to Dave Checketts and his partners - put some final punctuation on one of City Hall’s most controversial decisions.

In 1989, then-mayor Vince Schoemehl supported - then blocked - a plan by Civic Center Corporation to build a new $70 million arena adjacent to Busch Memorial Stadium. Vince’s decision left standing a rambling complex of 10 red-brick mostly vacant downtown warehouses known as Cupples Station. His decision outraged some local sports fans, who were only partially mollified by the subsequent construction of a new arena on the Kiel site - which, in turn, angered some local preservationists.

For more than 15 years, both Cupples and the hockey team have waited for better days. They seem to have arrived.