Ballpark Village (BPV) is a dining and entertainment district in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, owned by the investment group that controls the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's professional baseball team. Located on the 200 and 300 blocks of Clark Street, it sits across the street from and is meant to complement Busch Stadium, the team's home field, on the site of the demolished Busch Memorial Stadium. Proposed in the late 1990s, the development was executed in two phases by primary developer Cordish Company of Baltimore, Maryland. The first phase, opened before the start of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, is a $100 million, 150000 sqfoot facility that includes bars, restaurants — several with a view onto the field — events venues, 720 parking spaces, and the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum. The second phase of the development, a $260 million, 700,000-square-foot expansion which included a luxury highrise apartment building, a ten-story office building, a boutique hotel, a fitness club, and numerous new restaurants and retail spaces, broke ground in late 2017 and was opened in stages, beginning in mid-2020.

Components

The venues offer more than 200 events annually, a complement to the 81 days of Cardinals home games.

History

The Ballpark Village project was first proposed in the late 1990s, when the Cardinals’ owners began planning to replace the 1966 Busch Memorial Stadium with a new structure, dubbed Busch Stadium. But after the new stadium opened in 2006, Ballpark Village stalled and the site sat dormant. The project’s size and scope changed repeatedly over the years.

Phase One

The Cardinals corporation asked for and received $49 million in tax breaks from the City of St. Louis to help build the $100 million first phase. Ground was officially broken on February 8, 2013, for the 150000 sqfoot first-phase of the project. A few days earlier, the Cardinals corporation released artist's illustrations of the planned venue. On February 14, the Cardinals announced plans to add the PBR Cowboy Bar to the entertainment area. This part of the project moved along with little delay. On August 27, the final truss intended to hold the retractable roof was laid into place. On September 18, chief operations officer Jim Watry announced plans for more than 1,000 jobs. The Cardinals Museum and Cardinal Nation Restaurant and Budweiser Brew House have rooftop seating similar to that found outside Chicago's Wrigley Field. The St. Louis Cardinals announced the addition of three tenants to BPV on November 14, 2013, including The Drunken Fish (a sushi restaurant), Howl at the Moon (a piano bar), and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. The grand opening was March 27, 2014.

Phase Two

On October 25, 2016, the Cardinals announced the second phase of Ballpark Village, scheduled to begin construction in late 2017 and be completed 18 months later, pending governmental and funding approval. The $260 million plan includes a 29-story residential tower, a 10-story office building, an 8-story Live! by Loews hotel, and a 3-story retail building with shops, restaurants, Onelife Fitness, and more amenities. The total amount of space in this phase will be 100000 sqft of office space, 10000 sqft of entertainment, 50000 sqft of retail, and 340000 sqft of residential. Ground was officially broken on December 14, 2017. On November 30, 2016, a committee within the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a plan to give the Cardinals corporation $16 million in tax breaks for the second phase. Construction of the $260 million second phase officially began on December 14, 2017 and began opening in June 2020.

Phase Three

On November 3, 2021, the Cardinals and Cordish announced the start of Phase 3, which is projected to develop the remaining land in the area within three to six years. Cardinals President Bill Dewitt III said the work would focus on residential use, thanks to the success of earlier such efforts.