By KERRY SMITH, EDITOR, ST. LOUIS CONSTRUCTION NEWS AND REVIEW MAGAZINE
The East side real estate development team of Christopher Byron and Scott Plocher is forging ahead on a $50 million, mixed-use site in Edwardsville, Trace on the Parkway.
Byron, managing partner of Edwardsville-based BCPK Law LLC and Plocher, president of Highland-based Plocher Construction Co. Inc., broke ground in January on the project formerly known as Edwardsville Town Center. The 26-acre development is located at the intersection of Governors’ Parkway and IL Route 157, directly across the state highway from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
A total of 184 luxury apartments units (one-, two- and three-bedroom) comprise the residential facet of the development. Multiple amenities will include a resort-style pool, fitness center, social lounge and direct connections to the Madison County Transit walking/cycling trails. Phase one, underway now, totals 72 of the living units and the main leasing center; it is expected to reach completion in March 2020.
Phase two – which will include the remaining apartments and the retail scope – is scheduled to begin in late April. The 78,000-square-foot commercial retail component will include a 40,000-square-foot Kloss Furniture flagship location and six single-story retail outlots.
“We’re looking forward to bringing a grocer, restaurants and more retail to the Trace as this project continues to develop,” said Byron. “There’s still more to come in Edwardsville…the residential and commercial growth is sustaining it,” he added.
Trace on the Parkway is located on the former long-time site of Madison Mutual Insurance Co.’s headquarters. In early 2017, the company moved to a 5-story office building in downtown Edwardsville that was also developed and built by Byron and Plocher. Trace gets its name from The Edwards Trace, a key trail in the settlement of Central Illinois during the early 1800s, that claimed Edwardsville as its northbound launching point.
Other recent Byron and/or Plocher developments in Edwardsville and Glen Carbon include: the corporate headquarters for Prairie Farms Dairy, Altitude Trampoline Park and Donco Electrical Connection. The development team’s O’Fallon, IL projects include The Blade (Class A office tower along North Greenmount Road at I-64) Dewey’s restaurant and Sugarfire Restaurant.