Attorneys sack downtown St. Louis

Historic law firm Thompson Coburn LLP has decided to stay downtown, according to Mayor Slay. But not without $700,000 in incentives and a new parking garage! Really? A new garage? And atop the former Ambassador?

Now, Armstrong Teasdale is leaving, headed to Clayton as part of the new Centene deal (itself playing the incentives game to get more from Clayton?). A 21-story tower will now replace the modernist landmark, the former Library Limited building at Forsyth and Hanley.

What has our area gained?

A new parking garage.

A new twenty-one story building.

What have we lost?

Valuable space downtown that could have been developed as an office/residential building in the future.

Downtown viability, as fewer people will be "forced" to walk the streets of downtown to get to Thompson Coburn's offices.

Another modernist landmark--the region's first suburban Scruggs, Vandervoort and Barney department store.

History does repeat itself.

The Library Ltd. Building, from Vanishing STL: