Finance time

ST. LOUIS — Beer and wine will flow. Dignitaries will talk about the dawn of a new day. A band will rouse the crowd to dance in the streets.

And the wrecking ball will swing promptly at 5:10 p.m. to allow TV crews to capture it live for their evening newscasts.

All this for the demolition Friday afternoon of a downtown pedestrian bridge, which has gone from serving as a gleaming metal and glass entrance for what was once the largest enclosed urban mall in the country to a reminder of the monumental failure that St. Louis Centre became.

"This marks a turning point in the cycle of downtown revitalization," said Maggie Campbell, president of Partnership for Downtown St. Louis. "This has been a physical and psychological barrier. By knocking it down, we’re opening up opportunities and carrying the momentum forward."

The four-level pedestrian bridge over Washington Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets was built to link the now-closed Dillard’s department store to the mall. But after Dillard’s called it quits in 2001 as part of the mall’s eventual demise, city leaders soon looked at the bridge as an impediment to the multimillion-dollar efforts elsewhere on Washington Avenue, the heart of an emerging loft district.

The chorus of voices was loud and in unison: The pedestrian bridge is the obstacle standing in the way of having a free-flowing boulevard of urban renewal from downtown to the Mississippi River and Gateway Arch grounds.

Invitations for the "bridge bash," complete with corporate sponsorship and a funky logo, promise a party-like atmosphere where "excitement builds around the removal of this urban design barrier."

The city’s deputy mayor of development, Barbara Geisman, calls the bridge "one of the last eyesores in downtown St. Louis. To say we’re thrilled to see it go would be an understatement."

Her boss, Mayor Francis Slay, is expected to speak at the demolition.

Ownership of the shuttered mall has changed hands several times. Plans came and went. City leaders grew weary of the vacant 540,000 square feet.

The bridge has been especially frustrating for those who run conventions and promote St. Louis as a town for tourists. America’s Center and its adjoining hotels sit adjacent to the abandoned mall.

Donna Andrews, public relations director for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, refers to it as "the ugly neighbor next door." She said taking down a structure that links two abandoned buildings will make walking down the street seem safer — and it should get rid of all the pigeons and the droppings they leave behind.

Image is everything, and the bridge is one of the first things visitors see when at a convention center event, Andrews said.

"It’s very foreboding, and has separated the riverfront from all the great development happening on Washington Avenue," Andrews said. "It seems like the bridge is blocking everything."

For Amos Harris, the bridge must make way for the plans he and other developers have to turn the old Dillard’s into an Embassy Suites hotel and apartments, and the old mall into a parking garage with street-level retail.

He said the bridge couldn’t be torn down, however, until the financing for both projects was worked out because the demolition costs of $450,000 are going to be shared. The final piece of the financing came together Tuesday.

"This is not so much connecting the city to the Arch, but it’s connecting the Arch to the city," Harris said. "Those who park down there in the garage to the north of the Arch can look up and say, ‘Hey, there’s something up there. Let’s check it out.’"

The mall was built with a rounded ceiling designed to emulate an old riverboat paddle wheel, a nod to the city’s river heritage.

But the hype of a massive urban shopping center faded as suburban malls such as the St. Louis Galleria grew.

All that remains from St. Louis Centre is Macy’s, connected to the mall by a similar pedestrian bridge over Locust Street. That less infamous bridge is scheduled to come down later this year.

Longtime downtown Alderman Phyllis Young has heard more proposals for downtown than she can count. She was in office in August 1985 when St. Louis Centre opened, complete with a ribbon cutting by comedian Bob Hope, an appearance by "Silver Spoons" star Ricky Schroeder and a BMW giveaway.

"So many people have promised that they’ll take the bridge down so many times that it’s exciting to have a date certain," Young said.

Unfortunately, Young won’t be in town for the party. But she’ll have plenty of time to celebrate: Demolition is expected to take about three weeks.

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