One of Downtown Chesterfield’s first residential projects is pivoting to a new concept.
A planned neighborhood from developer TriStar Properties is moving forward with 87 for-sale villas and townhomes instead of the 105 rental units originally planned. A mix of ranch-style villas and two-story townhouses will occupy the nearly 17-acre site located along Chesterfield Parkway, with Central Park to the west and the heart of the planned Downtown Chesterfield district being built on the site of the former mall to the east. The Chesterfield City Council approved the shift during its most recent meeting.
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Matt Segal, TriStar’s vice president of development, says the pivot from rental housing came after the company held focus groups with local real estate agents. Although the real estate agents liked the rental concept, Segal says they encouraged TriStar to instead consider building homes to sell, pointing toward what they described as a shortage of low-maintenance housing for empty nesters looking to downsize.
TriStar ultimately determined it could offer the homes at prices it considers competitive, rather than entering the rental market on the higher end of the pricing spectrum. Segal says the homes are expected to start in the high $600,000s.
“We looked at it as: Do you want to be where you can be a value to the consumer, or do you want to be at the top of the market?” Segal says. “It’s kind of simple economics. There’s a need—a demand—for what we’re trying to do, and we can meet the demand with a price point that we feel is a value. So we made the pivot.”
More broadly, plans for Downtown Chesterfield call for more than 2,300 housing units, although the Staenberg Group did not provide answers this week about how many rental units are currently planned for the district. The balance of rental units versus resident-owned units in the St. Louis region has been a topic of public interest in recent months, and demographers such as Ness Sandoval of Saint Louis University have said the region needs more rentals in communities with good schools in order to grow and provide upward economic mobility.
Each of the 87 homes in TriStar’s plans will feature first-floor primary bedrooms. The ranch villas, which are planned for the eastern side of the property, will have two bedrooms on the main level, with additional bedroom space available in finished basements. The townhomes, meanwhile, will be located along Chesterfield Parkway and start with three bedrooms. They will be flexible enough to accommodate as many as five bedrooms, if fully finished.
And about those townhomes with finished basements, Segal says, “You can see these get up to 3,500-plus square feet, so they’re pretty big. Those could be for families, but in general we look at it as they’ll be for young professionals, newlyweds, and empty nesters. Then there’s the traditional families if they choose to, just because of the schools and the location. But that’s not really our target audience.”
The neighborhood’s location should be a major selling point, Segal says. Residents will be centrally located between two prominent Chesterfield destinations, with quick and easy park access and a connection to Downtown Chesterfield via the planned Grand Entry. TriStar is designing the neighborhood in such a way that might encourage residents to spend time outside and interact with one another. Some townhouses, for example, will feature small courtyards in the front of the homes. Garages will be accessed from alleys, rather than the front yard. Walkability is one of the developer’s focus areas, Segal says.
“St. Louis doesn’t have that many walkable communities, in general,” he says. “You have [neighborhoods like] The Hill, and you have the Central West End. Those are obviously urban city locations. But in the suburbs, we really don’t have many suburban-urban locations like this.”
TriStar expects to close on the property Thursday, with an official groundbreaking anticipated in December or January, depending on weather. Home presales are expected to begin in the spring, with the first residents potentially moving in as soon as early 2028.
