Hotel Ignacio Opens
April 22, 2011St. Louis University’s new Boutique Inn, Hotel Ignacio opened its doors this month. This accomplishment follows numerous Midtown Hotel projects that never made it much farther than the planning stage (except for the very small Grand Center Inn). Midtown is a pretty major destination in St. Louis with assets such as SLU, The Fox, Powell Hall, The Moto Museum, Chaifetz Arena, Pappy’s Smokehouse and The Best Steak House all within a couple of blocks of the hotel.
Hotel Ignacio - Across Olive from SLU, Just a Block from Grand and Grand Center, and Right on Locust Street in Midtown Alley
The hotel’s placement is very nice for the growth of Midtown Alley, helping to anchor its Western end along with Triumph, The Moto Museum, MotoEuropa, The P.W. Shoe Lofts and the recently opened Field House Bar and Grill.
West End of Midtown Alley
In the near future, hotel guests and area residents alike will be able to enjoy Frozen Yogurt from Flying Cow Frozen Yogurt Company set to open this summer in a newly renovated building just East of the hotel. It’s neighbor is currently an Art Gallery with some cool looking work on the walls and pedestals.
Art Gallery and Hotel Ignacio
Other recent additions to Midtown Alley such as the Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (which makes delicious beer) and the Double Apple Cafe and Hookah Lounge are bringing more people to the area and increasing its visibility. My hope is that we won’t have to wait too much longer to have the large parking lots separating Grand Center from Midtown Alley replaced with useful buildings to create a continuous urban space.
Parking Lots in Midtown Alley and Grand Center
A large Parking Lot right in front of the new hotel is a bad first impression and I hope that SLU will realize that a parking garage with first level retail is a better way to go. The enormous glut of parking in Midtown remains its biggest problem in my opinion, and only by rebuilding the city where it has been torn down to create these parking lots can we get this neighborhood to reach its full potential.
Exploring St. Louis 
Midtown Alley also has Adobe Reds and a Hamburger Mary’s opening( in the old Lush space ) with a 1600sf patio and street front building pad and 72 car lot. The area is one of my favorites in the city. It’s fast becoming a “must see” area.
Thanks for the info! Midtown Alley is an amazing neighborhood and I can’t wait to visit its new businesses. I’ve read that a Pita Pit is also scheduled to open on Olive near Hamburger Mary’s and am particularly excited about that.
If I’m not mistaken, there was a building on the parking lot pictured, next to the “green space”. It was the hundred-plus year old livery stables torn down by SLU…for the parking lot. Josephine Baker St. ran between the stables and the “green space, but obviously it was vacated, again at SLU’s behest, by the City. So, no, I rather doubt that SLU will give up one of their precious, precious parking lots for a building, especially if said building isn’t one of theirs. If it is one of theirs, it’ll probably be one of their crap green-top pastiches. Midtown Alley exists despite SLU (at least the admin, ghetto-promoting side), and not because of it.
The loss of the livery stables was terrible, and SLU’s track record is even worse, but with the three buildings they have recently renovated on Locust Street, I believe there is hope! I even believe that some day SLU will remove their black fences and put doors on the fronts of their buildings!
I do appreciate you bringing this up though. We really need to rebuild Josephine Baker and maintain the short blocks that make up so much of Midtown Alley.